GILL — This year’s Gill-Montague School Committee election includes three seats up for re-election this year, with two new faces running in each race. One of the three seats is in Gill, where incumbent Sandy Brown is running against Shawn Hubert.
Sandy Brown is running for her fourth term on the school board and has lived in Gill since 1984. She has a degree in economics, which, she says helps her with the yearly budget process.
Brown said her focus on the board has been making sure all students reach their potential. There’s a focus on the top students and the bottom students, but some students who aren’t making noise don’t get challenged the way they need to be, she said.
“Sometimes I think students in the middle that don’t cause any trouble get left behind,” Brown said.
She also wants to ensure funding for the district’s music, art and theater programs, and said that those programs can often be first on the chopping block, but often reach students in different ways that a standard class can’t. “You reach different students in different ways.”
As for the School Committee’s most contentious issue, the Turners Falls High School mascot, Brown voted to change the mascot in February, saying it’s important for people to understand the other side of the issue.
“If people find it offensive or stereotyping then we should change it,” she said.
Brown said she wants the rest of the process to be transparent and bring the community together through the selection of a new mascot. “Change is hard, but I think this is the right change,” she said.
Shawn Hubert said that when he decided to run for the Gill seat on the School Committee, he even surprised himself. Hubert is a graduate of Montague schools, where he also sent his two sons.
Hubert, who owns Hubie’s Tavern on Avenue A, said he and his wife have been involved in the high school since the ’90s, and he’s the announcer for the Turners High football team.
“We’ve always been around the school, we see what great people we have, what great kids we have,” he said.
He said that Turners Falls often gets bad press, but that many of the students are talented and go to great colleges.
“A kid that comes out of Turners Falls can be anything he or she wants to be,” he said.
Hubert said he had never considered politics before this race, and felt like he had the time to donate to something like this now. Hubert said he has a general distrust of politicians and doesn’t consider himself one. Hubert said part of the reason he decided to run was the mascot issue and the current committee’s handling of the issue.
He said there’s been a lot of discussions like this one at high schools across the country, and wishes there had been more examinations of the impact on the community in how something like this is done.
“It seemed like the last people that were considered in this process was the tax-paying citizens and our students,” he said.
Hubert said it’s not his goal to reverse that decision, and that committing to a full term on the School Committee over one issue isn’t what he wants to do.
Hubert’s main concern was with the process. He said he wants to learn and possibly change other processes too, since this was a highly publicized issue, he said the committee should evaluate the way it handles less visible issues.
“What kind of processes that are being used for other things? Maybe the processes need to change,” he said.
He said he’s not afraid to learn and listen to people with different views than his and change his mind when he needs to.
Hubert plans to focus on the budget and the impact of cuts on the students. He said he wants to work to retain teachers who live in the community and are invested in the students.
“Ultimately I just want to be a part of a group of people, and say I worked with a creative, smart group of people and we made positive changes.”
Reach Miranda Davis at 413-772-0261, ext. 280 or mdavis@recorder.com.