Sudbury 2024 Election Profile: Karyn Jones, School Committee

SUDBURY, MA — Sudbury's 2024 election is underway now with mail-in voting happening ahead of Election Day on Monday.

To help voters make choices this year, we've asked candidates running in the contested races — Sudbury School Committee and Sudbury Select Board — to respond to candidate questionnaires.

School committee candidate Karyn Jones, a member of the town's Commission on Disability, is one of three locals running for two seats in an open race with no incumbents. Here's how Jones responded:

Can you tell voters a little about yourself?

My family of five has lived in Sudbury for three years. I have three children in Sudbury Public Schools — a second and fourth grader at General John Nixon Elementary School as well as preschooler at Peter Noyes Elementary School.

I have found the Sudbury community to be incredibly warm and receptive, and I try to give back to the community as much as I can. I have introduced events, activities, and initiatives such as the Accessible Trick-or-Treat, the TOPSoccer program, and most recently, established the Parents for Sudbury After-School Solutions group to increase options available to parents. I am a member of the Town of Sudbury’s Commission on Disability, the event coordinator for Sudbury SEPAC, and helped write several successful grants for town groups and organizations.

I started my career as a Financial Engineer at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where I analyzed the stock market to predict performance of trading strategies, built models of trends based on market history, evaluated risk, and made portfolio recommendations. Upon moving back home to Massachusetts some ten years later, I shifted gears to the nonprofit sector. I took a new business development position at a national organization that had Massachusetts Chapter 766-approved schools under its umbrella. In this role, I identified community needs in order to grow and expand special education schools and programming in Massachusetts as well as nationally. I was also able to do advocacy work on the state and federal level for funding. After a few years, I shifted roles in the same organization to become the Director of Philanthropy. I loved working more closely with families and building a community support network.

I have spent the last few years caring for my family and volunteering in the community. This year, I took my first steps back toward work by accepting a part-time position at Josiah Haynes Elementary School while my son finishes preschool. If you have a child at Haynes, please tell them Ms. Jones says hi!

Why are you running for school committee this year?

The Sudbury School Committee has done tremendous work in getting SPS students through the pandemic. Today, SPS cannot look backward at a pre-pandemic status quo, but rather must adapt to meet pressing educational gaps and social-emotional concerns. With my background in financial engineering and working with special education schools and programs, I feel I have a unique skill set to serve the community as a member of the Sudbury School Committee.

If elected, my top two priorities are to uphold the Committee’s responsibility to Sudbury residents by 1) working towards building a sustainable operating budget; and 2) amplifying learning outcomes for all students by delivering a quality education while also fostering social-emotional well-being.

Specific issues falling under the umbrella of delivering a quality education include ensuring equity of student experience across schools (in terms of field trips, special programming, and specialized instruction), facilitating access to after-school care and enrichment, maintaining optimal class sizes, and providing oversight to ensure curricula and instruction provide an appropriate level of challenge to both advanced learners and students requiring more support. These efforts require collaboration, subcommittee work, smart budgeting, and open communication within SPS and the community at large to understand concerns and plan for future needs.

Every child has one opportunity to get an education, and that education is the foundation for a lifetime. It can never be diminished or taken away. I would be privileged to be a small part of ensuring Sudbury children leave 8th grade with not only a strong academic foundation, but also a genuine feeling of connection to this community. If you’ve ever been at one of the elementary schools during that last week of school, when the graduating LS seniors come back to visit their elementary alma maters across Sudbury, you know the vibe I’m talking about. And if you haven’t, look forward to it – it’s something special.

To learn more about my platform, please visit my website: www.jones4sudburyschools.com/platform.

There’s been a movement across the nation to ban lessons and books in schools dealing with issues like sex, gender and race. What’s your stance on this movement and teaching on these subjects?

To be clear — I believe that providing awareness of and access to books and lessons that focus on the full breadth of the human experience is not only lawful, but also to the benefit of all students. This latest movement specifically targets the LGBTQ+ community, and I will not support any policy or action that seeks to diminish or erase the lived experience of this community.

The past few years have been marked by considerable cultural tumult nationwide, and through most of it, I’ve been really encouraged to see my Sudbury neighbors stand in solidarity with members of our community who have been marginalized and discriminated against. Although I’ve been peripherally aware of the parental rights movement for a few years now, it wasn’t until last spring that it all felt closer to home. A wildly popular children’s book author, Jessie Sima, was invited to speak to the Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd graders at the Noyes School. Jessie is best known for their book “Not Quite Narwhal," which was just adapted for Netflix. The author also happens to use they/them pronouns. An email from the Noyes principal ahead of the event informed the community that several parents had expressed concerns about a perceived “agenda” in hosting this particular author, and assured the community there was no such agenda. Although several families opted their children out of the event, it went off with great success. Then, this past fall, there was public comment at a Sudbury School Committee meeting expressing concern about the “appropriateness” of a book displayed in a middle school classroom featuring a transgender character. This particular incident has a direct bearing on the current School Committee election, and much of what voters should be aware of is examined in an article entitled, “‘Parental Rights’ Movement Surfaces In School Committee Race” in the Sudbury Weekly, available online. All of this is happening in Sudbury at a time in which, on a national level, this movement is receiving considerable attention.

The American Library Association (ALA) reported that book challenges nearly doubled in 2022, and 51% targeted school books and materials. The vast majority of challenged books were written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Visit my website to read more.

In Massachusetts, gender identity is a protected characteristic in state anti-discrimination and hate crime laws. In Massachusetts schools, the revised Access to Equal Education Opportunity Regulations (603 CMR 26.00) and Charter School Regulations (603 CMR 1.00) include the broadened anti-discrimination provision:

“All public school systems shall, through their curricula, encourage respect for the human and civil rights of all individuals regardless of race, color, sex, gender identity, religion, national origin or sexual orientation.”

Literature reflecting the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ children is not a threat to their peers, but a reflection of the real world and a critical way to reflect the humanity of LGBTQ+ students.

Undoing the progress our schools have made on this issue is absolutely a threat to LGBTQ+ students and their family members, and raises serious questions about rolling back protections for groups that face intense discrimination and bullying in schools under the guise of “parental rights.” I am in full support of the existing state law, DESE guidelines, and the current Sudbury School Committee policies around library collections, bullying, and protections for transgender and gender nonconforming youth. I am also in support of the current work SPS is doing as a result of the 2022 Equity Audit. The professionals in our schools work diligently to implement district policies and make SPS an ever more inclusive community. I fully support their efforts to ensure every student in our district feels welcomed, accepted, seen, and valued.

What’s one thing the school district is doing well and one thing it’s not doing well? How would you fix what’s not being done well?

I believe Sudbury Public Schools has been extremely proactive in building an inclusive and equitable school community. They completed an Equity Audit in 2022, and they have been strategic in setting out in doing what the audit recommends. I also believe SPS has been very proactive in reviewing curriculums. An example of this is their six-year ELA review, currently in year 4.

It’s been my observation that in the last couple of years, SPS has been left squeezed for funding at several critical junctures, which led to not one but two urgent requests for additional funding in 2023. When school leadership has to devote time and attention to putting out budget-related fires, it takes focus away from other critical work. The administration has done an admirable job navigating all of these urgent budget challenges in recent years, all while putting student needs first, but we need to empower them with a budget that doesn’t put them in difficult positions that often result in undesirable tradeoffs. If elected, I will work to build a more sustainable budget to ensure the district can reliably meet the needs of every student without relying too heavily on one-time funds.

It’s critical that the budget supports the District’s ability to respond to changes and evolving needs across the student population. I will also advocate for enhanced short-term and long-term capital planning. I will work collaboratively with other town departments to plan accordingly based upon the imminent Space Use and Facility Condition Assessment. For example, we currently fund basic maintenance like carpet replacement and painting via the Town Manager's Operating Capital budget each year. This approach makes the district dependent on funding sources outside of the SPS operating budget for routine maintenance. Collaboration with town leadership is required to find a more sustainable approach that ensures our facilities remain optimal learning environments.