Northampton — Thomas Davidson is looking to turn his experience as a parent, teacher and lifelong Valley resident into a School Committee seat.
“I feel like my perspective is one of three different lenses,” he said.
Davidson has lived in Northampton for about 20 years, and grew up in Amherst.
A teacher, he teaches science at West Springfield High School, and he said his favorite discipline of science to teach is astronomy. His daughter, Serafina Day, is a sophomore at Northampton High School, while his son, Holden Davidson is in fifth grade at Ryan Road Elementary School. His wife, Julie Day, is a fiction writer.
The Autumn Drive resident said that he’s thought about running for School Committee before, and that the opening on the committee last spring presented a good opportunity.
“I felt this was a good time to try it,” he said.
In April, Davidson lost a bid to be appointed to the committee when a joint School Committee-City Council picked Lonnie Kaufman, in a 10-7 vote, to complete the rest of Thomas Baird’s term. Baird resigned his post last spring when he moved to Connecticut.
Davidson and Kaufman will square off once again at next Tuesday’s municipal election.
Davidson served for three years on the Ryan Road School Council, under two different principals.
“That taught me a lot about how the schools work,” he said.
He’s also served on a state Department of Education committee to develop the Biology MCAS test. He said that that experience gave him greater insight into the state’s testing process.
“The process is not strictly top-down,” he said. “The state does hear the feedback of the teachers.”
He also noted his ability to translate educational jargon, which he said he’d done while on the Ryan Road council.
Davidson identified two challenges facing Northampton schools: Funding the budget and supporting students in the system.
He noted the co-teaching model that Northampton recently adopted, which places two educators in a classroom and allows special needs students to be integrated in classrooms with their peers. Davidson said that he co-teaches in West Springfield, but that the model needs both time and money in order to be successful.
“I know that it can work,” he said.
Davidson said he’d like to build upon the great relationships between teachers and students that already exists, as well as arts programs at the middle and high school. He also noted the “responsive classroom” approach at Ryan Road, which teaches social and emotional skills alongside academic disciplines.
“I think that it should be something that should be an option,” he said, when asked if he’d like to see it expanded to other schools.
On the subject of the controversy over the paid release for the head of the Northampton Association of School Employees, Davidson said that if the release is revenue neutral, the committee should consider reinstating it.
He also said that the paid release program appeared to have been working well for the last two years.
The dispute centers on what the union is being asked to pay so that its president can take a leave from teaching and perform union duties full time.
Asked what he would do with additional funding from the state, or from educational funding generated from casino gambling, and whether he’d use it to raise teacher salaries, he said that he’d consider it. He also noted that it could be used to bring back programming and eliminated positions.
Davidson said that his campaign has been received well, and that a lot of people know him from his engagement with Ryan Road.
“People are really excited,” he said.