Megan Pillsbury and I worked together on the School Site Council at Havens more than a decade ago.  I am excited to hear she is running for School Board. We’d be lucky to have her as a trustee of our school system!  She will bring a unique viewpoint to the board, since she combines classroom teaching experience with the understanding of a parent, as well as taking a systemic perspective of education.

Though we didn’t know one another at the time, we volunteered to work together to research the impact and benefits of homework for elementary school students. She was not only interested in thoroughly researching the topic so our work would be grounded in facts, but also attentive to gathering input from all those invested in the topic – from students, to parents to teachers to administrators and other staff.  She worked extremely hard to understand people’s interests, and to think through how we might design a comprehensive and flexible program at Havens to meet as many people’s needs as possible, in the context of the evidence of what works best for students.  Then she worked to document and implement a system for homework at Havens – so that parents knew what to expect and why, so that teachers had supports in place and didn’t have to reinvent, so there was consistency from classroom to classroom from an administrative perspective, and so that students would have homework that made a difference in their learning.  I was impressed at every stage of this project: by Megan’s commitment and dedication, by her thoroughness, by her systems thinking, by her focus on meeting interests and needs.  Based on these, we delivered an excellent and comprehensive homework program at Havens.

Megan Pillsbury has the experience, talent and perspective to serve us well on the Piedmont School Board.

Dana Serleth, Piedmont Resident

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