A labor organizer and paraprofessional is making a first bid for Cambridge School Committee to make education policy more democratic.
Luisa de Paula Santos became interested in what was happening at the committee level during her time as a paraprofessional at the Fletcher Maynard Academy in The Port neighborhood of Cambridge. (She’s now a paraprofessional in a Somerville program for students on the autism spectrum.) After working through contract negotiations in 2023 and attending committee meetings, Santos realized there was more to be done.
“I felt this disconnect between my lived experience as a para in schools and what the School Committee was acting on,” Santos said.
With the closing of the Kennedy-Longfellow School in June, Santos saw a grassroots push for “participatory democracy” – what she explains as a more engaged and transparent school policymaking process – and was motivated to join the movement.
Another nudge came from observing a town hall of the “Solidarity Squad,” a coalition of 30-plus educators, caregivers and community members that came together to “break down barriers between caregivers and educators and to amplify our collective role in district decisions,” according to a January letter to Cambridge Day.
The moment really opened her eyes to the unvoiced concerns of her community, Santos said.
“I don’t think I would have run on my own,” Santos said. “I only really felt motivated to do it because it feels like it’s part of something greater.”
Much of that has to do with “participatory engagement in school policymaking” – meaning direct communication between the community and committee, Santos said.
Santos cited the “scandalous” superintendent search and “intimidating” public comment portions of committee meetings for why there must be more ways for the community to engage in school policymaking.
“A lot of people care about the schools and want to voice their concerns but don’t really have the avenues to do that. If you expect people to just go to School Committee meetings and give public comments, that is a really intimidating space,” Santos said.
Her experiences working within schools and in labor organizing are interdependent with her candidacy, Santos said.
“If I were to be elected, I would see my role as a committee member, as an organizer, first and foremost,” she said. This organizing would include working “with City Council members to build relationships.”
Santos highlighted a few other aspects of her candidacy in a conversation with Cambridge Day.
Equity and student discipline: Santos’ platform calls for restorative justice practices that would address discrepancies across the district. “Students of color and students with disabilities are disciplined at a much higher rate than wealthier students,” she said.
She’s not the only candidate pushing for more restorative justice practices in place of traditional disciplinary action, which is shown to disproportionately impact students of color. In a school district she helps lead, administrator evaluations are tied to equity goals, Santos said.
Funding disparities: During her time at the Fletcher Maynard Academy, Santos saw a need for instruction that can target a variety of student needs. She saw the impact of funding disparities in the Kennedy-Longfellow closing and the challenges the Fletcher Maynard Academy faces.
“There are a lot of special-ed classrooms at FMA, and I feel like a lot of the students in my classes were very brilliant, but didn’t have the capacity to be able to meet their needs fully.” Santos said.
Controlled choice: Cambridge’s system of placing students in specific schools dates back to a 1980 effort to desegregate schools and takes into account family preference and socioeconomic background.
“This controlled choice system that we have – I know that it started off really well-intentioned, but right now, it’s just sort of replicating segregation in our schools,” Santos said. “Cambridge has the resources to be able to fully fund every school and to make every school a school of choice.”
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She sounds competent, unlike the current School Committee. At this point, everyone should just vote for who the teachers want. We know the School Committee and the current administration and the last 3 administrations, haven’t done a good job, let’s let the teachers have a go at some decision making. I’ll give their slate my rankings. I doubt it could go worse.
While I like Mr. Murphy, I do not trust that his selection process was a good one, and I’d like to see real oversight, not performative.