Lilly Havstad is a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Center for African Studies, a parent to two children and a former substitute teacher. Havstad said all three identities contribute to her “student-centered” campaign for Cambridge School Committee.
“We are not a student-centered district right now, but we could be with the resources that we have,” she said. For instance, a “student advisory council” to the committee would boost student engagement.
Havstad is living out a student-centered approach within her own campaign team, which is made up of four Harvard undergrads, two of whom are her former students.
“I am getting a whole new taste of what it’s like to work alongside students … and it’s been extremely rewarding,” she said. “All of this informs how I’m thinking about how we need to rethink our education practices.”
A self-identified teacher-scholar, Havstad said her scholarship and her “work in the classroom” are “deeply intertwined and mutually sustaining.” She said that her scholarship in African history has given her an understanding of where Cambridge can diversify its curricula.
“We are such a global district … I know we can go a lot further in having our curricula reflect that diversity through more global offerings from an earlier age,” she said.
Before Havstad taught at Northeastern, Boston University and Harvard, she worked as a substitute teacher for California public schools, an experience that gave her “empathy for educators,” who need more support and resources in the classroom.
Havstad also serves as chair to the budget subcommittee at Graham & Parks School, and believes centering students and educators will take reexamining the district’s spending.
“If we want to figure out what it’s going to take to fully fund our schools, to really meet student and educator needs,” Havstad said, “we need to build the budget from scratch, starting from the ground up, and we need to do it with all of the stakeholders at the table.”
The main issue with the budget is that there is “zero transparency” from the committee, she said. The budget is a “reflection of the district’s values,” and right now, “the district’s values are not rooted in meaningful community engagement.”
Havstad referred to recent revelations of an additional $40,000 payment to superintendent search firm as “misappropriating tax dollars,” and called for “every single one of our current school community members to speak up and tell us what they know.” On her campaign website, Havstad says she had a campaign volunteer request the public records that led to the revelation.
Havstad also pointed to “high need” students who are underserved by the district’s spending, adding that the category is too broad to encompass the intersectional identities of many students. (The district categorizes a student as high need if they are an English learner, economically disadvantaged, on an individualized education program or low income.)
For Havstad, the district’s spending will not serve diverse student needs unless it involves educators.
“I’m not just talking about financial resources. [Educators] need to be involved in the process of allocating annual discretionary budgets,” she said. “This includes our school improvement planning funds and a larger body of discretionary funds that are largely used for staff salaries in the buildings right now.”
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 committee sits in January.
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)3 nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.