I’m supporting Robbie Saner Sullivan for School Committee at-large. Here’s why: As someone with over four decades of experience with public budgeting, I know that budgeting is about making choices, choices that are usually difficult and often unpopular. It takes a strong and insightful person to see beyond impassioned rhetoric and recognize what a community can reasonably achieve in the near-term and sustain over time. Robbie is that kind of person.
Robbie also knows that education is not just about budgets, and that while adequate resourcing is essential, it works best when it supports a thoughtfully developed and broadly supported long-term strategy. In both her professional life and her volunteer work in our community, Robbie has repeatedly demonstrated her willingness and ability to work with others because she knows that finding common ground is the best way forward.
Robbie is passionate about our schools, but she also is able to look beyond the emotions of the moment and recognize that students excel in a community where everyone is adequately served and helped to flourish.
Robbie believes that beyond our tax dollars, the people of this city are able and willing to make important contributions to the education of Northampton’s students. She is committed to finding ways to create new and innovative opportunities for broader community participation in our schools.
I urge you to join me in voting for Robbie Saner Sullivan on Nov. 4.
Chris Hellman
Florence