Caitlin Dube, vying for a spot on the Cambridge School Committee, is a parent and school council member, as well as a former school administrator who now heads her own educational consulting firm.
But it’s her time as a high school history teacher that she mentions as vital in electing committee members.
“As a teacher, you understand how policy plays out in the classroom,” Dube said. “My experience as a teacher helps me understand that a policy can be good in theory, but in practice it might need adjustments.”
The Cambridge Education Association – the labor union that says it represents 1,500 Cambridge Public Schools employees – endorsed Dube along with five other challengers in the race last month.
“I’m excited about collaborating with the teachers union,” Dube said. “I see a lot of opportunity in Cambridge for teacher voice to be centered at the School Committee level.”
As important as that is, Dube said, her goals for joining the committee include issues of equity and access, including expanding inclusive, real-world learning experiences and family engagement to “every kid, for every family, at every school” and better communication between school administrators and the community – a key campaign issue for many candidates in this election, specifically in the wake of a superintendent search process that many called secretive, shambolic and misguided.
There are ways to build on existing structures within the district to improve communication, Dube said, pointing to school councils as an example. She co-chaired the Baldwin School Council for two years and now serves as a member.
“School councils are a place where there can be more organic connection between caregivers, because that caregiver feedback is brought directly to school councils in many cases,” Dube said. “The School Committee can adopt some of those more democratic and open practices so that caregivers can give feedback more easily.”
Dube elevated the community school as a model that integrates students’ academic, social and health needs into their learning process. The model helps promote partnerships with the city to provide wraparound services such as individualized tutoring and other after-school services, family child care assistance and mental health services, “all the things that we would ideally like to see in a functioning community,” she said.
Dube’s work as an educator began while she was still an undergraduate at Harvard, running an after-school instructional program for kids in grades 1-8 living in affordable housing.
Cambridge has comprehensive after-school and summer offerings for students, for example, but Dube wants to expand them to include more families.
“We need to think about creating the types of schools that naturally align with that kind of family engagement,” she added. Dube is also interested in Harvard educator Karen Mapp’s research on administrative models that involves families more in school decision-making – a topic set to be explored Thursday by the committee’s school climate group.
Being the mother of a fifth grader is another factor in her run, Dube said. “It feels really important to embody that what I do as an example, not just for my daughter, but because that’s the kind of engagement that we’re hoping to see in our young people,” she said.
There are 18 candidates running for the Cambridge School Committee’s six seats, to be decided Tuesday. With one incumbent opting not to run, one new face is guaranteed when the new committee sits in January.
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