School Committee member Julie Barry has announced her intent to seek reelection. The following is her statement:
I am a lifelong resident of Winthrop, graduated from Winthrop High School in 1992 and received my bachelors degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1996. My husband Erik and I have two daughters in the Winthrop School system.
As a full time working mother since my oldest daughter was born, I’ve been lucky to have been able to balance motherhood with a rewarding career that has seen me travel the world. I’ve also been able to make time to volunteer at my children’s schools from the time they were in Kindergarten and now I am intimately involved in their education at the secondary level. I have always made it a point to know what is going on at each of their schools and to understand the opportunities and challenges that our administrators, parents and teachers face everyday so that I can be of help when appropriate. As my children grew older and my oldest daughter went to high school I felt the need to get involved in a deeper way in order to better understand decisions being made about budgets and policies that impact our children’s education and overall wellbeing. My father was a teacher and coach in the community for many years and my aunt has been an educator her entire career and is now at Chelsea Public Schools. Having the perspective as a parent and as the child of an educator has given me the ability to experience our school system from different viewpoints.
I have been a marketing executive for over 20 years with a focus in public relations, corporate communications and corporate social responsibility. I have managed budgets of all sizes into the hundreds of millions of dollars and have led initiatives to audit and optimize spend to insure that dollars are spent in the most efficient way possible while maximizing and improving return. Many of the corporate social responsibility programs I’ve put together were built around a core value that all children deserve equal access to education, literacy programs, nutrition and healthcare. In April of 2014 I visited the garbage dumps of Nom Penh, Cambodia and helped children get to shelters at the Cambodian Children’s Fund (CCF) where they were taken care of in a community based charitable environment committed to educating children. I worked with the CCF for five years to help support nutritional programs, provide materials for STEM based educational curriculum and ultimately to open a world class educational facility called the Neeson Cripps Academy.
In March of 2019 I was voted in to the school committee to fill a seat that had been vacated. Within 2 weeks our worlds were turned upside down by Covid-19. What followed were 18 of the toughest months we’ve ever faced as a community. But it’s time to move on, it’s time to get back to business and it’s time to start planning not just for today but for the future. Let’s get back to focusing on allocating funding to programs that are missed like foreign language in middle school and band programs. Let’s get back to talking about The Vision of the Graduate. It does not start in high school it starts the moment a child enters the public school system here in Winthrop. I want to work with our fellow committee members and school administration to make sure we have programs in place to support and retrieve any learning loss and also programs to accelerate learning for those that are ready. Let’s talk about enriching our students with additional guidance and adjustment counselors by building life skills, supporting emotional and mental health and focusing not just academic excellence but attaining and assuring future success in the trades.
As a School Committee Member I will be a voice to effectively advocate for the families in this community and to make sure we can secure the funds necessary and implement policies and programs that make our children’s overall educational experience better so that we can build the future generation of critical thinkers, effective communicators, conscientious citizens and creative achievers prepared to take their journey to the next level and fulfill the districts Vision of the Graduate.
Let’s get back to talking about what Viking PRIDE is all about: Perseverance, Respect, Integrity, Dedication and Excellence.
My sincere thanks for your consideration.