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Photo courtesy of Heather Morrison.
After attending nearly every meeting of Westwood’s School Committee over the last two years, Ms. Heather Morrison decided to make her own run for one of the two seats that will become available this May. With her candidacy, she offers to bring a fresh perspective to the School Committee.
In her assessment, the School Committee often arrives at a consensus without much debate. She would encourage an airing of other perspectives or questions. “I’m hoping I can bring up some of those questions when the community brings them up to me,” says Ms. Morrison.
She has also noticed that the way meetings are currently run, often no response is offered to public comments. Ms. Morrison says it would be nice if there were some follow-up afterwards.
“I would really like to explore what options, what further actions, could be taken to improve the two-way communication,” she says. The office hours that School Committee has held are a good start, but more is needed, she observes.
Ms. Morrison believes she can bring a data-driven approach to decision-making on the School Committee. In her job working with children with autism at New England Center for Children, she says she is constantly using data, drawing on her background in applied behavior analysis.
That said, she acknowledges that data is not everything. She is hearing thirst for return of the pre-pandemic school experience from parents to whom social emotional learning (SEL) is a priority. Parents want to give children a chance to interact with each other through field trips, school dances, or one of many other things that were postponed or reimagined as virtual events in the last few years. There may be no data to support this, she says. However, she would like to reintroduce these things, sooner rather than later.
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Ms. Morrison would support the middle school student population with “special, focused attention,” noting it is a difficult transition for both students and families. It means greater independence, keeping track of one’s own assignments, and a much bigger environment. At the same time, compared to elementary school, parents receive less feedback.
Ms. Morrison wants residents to know she has a special place in her heart for the autism community. She has worked with children and autism for over twenty years, and before that, with autistic adults. She “really fell in love with the work,” which led to her current job and to getting an advanced degree in applied behavior analysis.
"I want people to know and understand I absolutely support the Westwood special education program. I’m happy that it is so successful so far and I hope we can continue to build upon it. I think it is something that Westwood should be very proud of. I hope I can provide additional insight into those programs because they are so important.”
Ms. Morrison invites residents to meet her this Thursday, March 17, 2022, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at an informal St. Patrick’s Day celebration that she is hosting in the back room at Comella’s. There will be light appetizers. Guests are welcome to come for any amount of time. Additional events will also be scheduled for opportunities to meet her as well, including virtual Zooms.
Thanks to Ms. Heather Morrison for speaking with Westwood Minute.
Editor's note: Westwood Minute takes no position on candidates running for election. Articles featuring candidates are provided for the purpose of community information and interest.
Publication timing and presentation of articles are a function of the capabilities of the publishing platform and what resources are available for an article to publish at a given time. Differences should not be interpreted as any endorsement of one candidate over another.
