March 28, 2024

Running for School Committee in Seekonk

Posted

Over the past two years, we've all embraced the challenges of Covid-19, and the changes it has brought upon our lives. I can admit that during this time, I learned a valuable lesson; that I blindly entrusted our educational system to fulfill the needs of all of our children. This is not to say that our system does a bad job. On the contrary, overall we have a great structure of educators who work hard at teaching our children, and their hard work does not go un-noticed.

During the spring of 2020, when in-school learning ended and our children were sent home for the remainder of the year, my wife worked diligently to find resources online to provide continuing education to our children. It was at this point where we observed our son struggling with the work we provided him.

Without going too far into detail, he had fallen two grades behind in reading. While he had received interventions over the years, the depth of the problem was never really addressed to us. The interventions alone would not be enough. We sought private assistance outside the school system, which ultimately confirmed our beliefs; our son needed more help. I hadn't realized the depth of this issue originally, and ultimately lay the blame on myself for not catching it sooner. I will no longer be blind to the problems we face as parents, the challenges our children face, and many other parents/children face here in our school system.

Interventions are a great tool to help a child who has fallen slightly behind. The question becomes how long do we implement these lower level interventions before realizing there is a larger issue at hand, and an IEP may be necessary to help a child reach their full potential? This is a question I think plagues our current system, as there doesn't seem to be a structure set to identify when a child has fallen too far behind. I believe this problem in our educational system revolves around “ No Child Left Behind “, and it's irony. It's become more of a “ kick the can down the road “, in many cases having the exact opposite of it's original intention. And it leads me to wonder how many other parents/children find themselves in the same position.

Our son has since been placed in an IEP, and has made outstanding progress. I cannot stress enough the value of our teachers on the front line, who work in these teams to help children who are struggling. Through his hard work and their excellent instruction, he is making great progress.

Through attending School Committee meetings, I can say I have some grave concerns with our current educational system. There seems to be many gray areas we are entering in this system when it comes to our children, fear and control tactics being utilized regarding Covid-19, and new courses of instruction being added to our curriculum without further information as to what said instruction entails.

This ultimately leads me to where I stand here today. My name is Kyle Juckett, and I've been a resident of Seekonk for the past 10 years. I'm a father of three children here in our school system, a husband to an amazing wife, and a police officer.

In addition to some of the issues stated above that I'd like to address if given the opportunity to serve this community, I hope that with my experience as a police officer, I can help assist with school safety, and assist in any way as a bridge between our wonderful Police Department and the School System.

I wish to serve every parent and child here in our community, and will do everything in my power to fight for the best educational system and levels of support for our children here in this town. I will fight for curriculum that is well defined, within the scope of the educational system, and is in the best interest of our children's futures. I will fight for our children's rights, and not kneel to fear.

Respectfully,

Kyle Juckett
School Committee Candidate

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