Wally Johnston is Running for Concord School Committee

The following was submitted by Wally Johnston. 

My name is Wally Johnston and I am running for Concord School Committee. I have lived in the western suburbs of Boston for 30 years and am well aware of the strong reputation of Concord’s schools. Having recently moved my home and financial services practice to Concord, I have been watching and listening to the energy surrounding our public schools with great interest. I am excited by the prospect of bringing my experience to the School Committee, helping to provide Concord-Carlisle students the best education possible.

We find ourselves in challenging times: State and federal mandates placing increasing burdens on administrators and teachers, tight budgets, significant falloff in teacher morale and growing discord within the community on how best to proceed.

It is my belief that we can meet these challenges most effectively by working together. I want to help expand Concord’s long-standing culture of citizen participation by fostering communication, collaboration and respect when it comes to Concord’s extraordinary public schools. Continued excellence will hinge on positively engaging one another -- parents, teachers, administrators, caring citizens. We should strive to come together and strengthen our communal environment where stakeholders can express themselves, debate respectfully and craft solutions that result from listening to one another to do the best we can for our children.

This campaign will be about the future of our schools. I look forward to engaging with all those who care to be involved.