Candidate Profile: Stephen Roix

For Somerville Patch's 2013 election guide, we asked all candidates running for office in Somerville the same three questions, and we posted their answers without editing them. Here are the responses from Stephen Roix:

Question: What are the two most important issues facing Somerville right now, and what would you do on the Board of Aldermen to address those issues?

It's hard to pick just two but the first that come to mind are supporting and improving the "bookends" of our schools, early childhood education and the High School level.

I believe our early childhood programs, particularly the District's highly regarded SMILE Pre-K, have already achieved a proven level of effectiveness such that the question of ‘how’ do we expand the program has supplanted ‘whether’ we expand the program.  The  program shows positive gains across all demographic groups in academic performance when SMILE students are compared to non-SMILE students (including those enrolled in other preschool programs), and those gains tend to last for the duration of the Students career in the Somerville Schools.   Not that the program can't be improved and will be improved - there is always room for improvement.  Yet SMILE seems to be such a prudent long-term investment in Somerville's future that the question of whether to expand has yielded to the question of how.   How to pay for it, how to physically accommodate the expanded program, how to effectively target and make sure we are assisting immigrant and non-english speaking families, whose children often show the greatest benefits from quality pre-K programming.  Equally important should be expanding access to special needs and developmentally delayed children who are often served through the comparably well-regarded yet smaller ECIP program.  We need to understand how to expand the benefits of these programs without steamrolling the existing external child-care  providers who are also members of our community,  perhaps even making them partners when feasible.  These are issues that the School Committee and the District are wrestling with already -  and I feel I have the right knowledge, perspective and values to continue to represent Ward 1 in this important discussion.

I believe that Somerville High School is equally important on the other end.  The High School’s  reputation is just beginning to catch up with how great of a school it is and how important a resource it is to our community.  The High School recently made the jump on the MA DESE accountability rankings from level 3 to Level 1 - but I already knew it was a great school, with great leadership, great teachers and great students.    There is room for improvement in many areas, and the District is working to improve the Guidance Department to give our students the best opportunity to continue their education after High School.   The vocational education department at Somerville High School is in some ways already robust and innovative, and I believe the right leadership and mission is in place.  This  includes the very important understanding that voke ed. does not preclude going to college after high school but in fact should encourage it, giving many students a level of focus for their education that they may not have had in a conventional stream.   The fact that Somerville High School is such a comprehensive high school is one of its many strengths, along with the diversity of the Student Body and the culture of respect and tolerance that has been built at the school.   I am interested in listening to the community, particularly the community of young adults that are SHS students, on how we can improve their experience not just in curriculum and test-taking (and the numbers show that has been improving), but also regarding other issues they are facing in their "non-academic" lives that the District can help them with as they transition to adult members of our Community.   Somerville High School students should continue to have access to a robust athletic program and other after-school opportunities.   As a School Committee, it's important that we continue to support a District focus on academic and extracurricular programming that allows our students to thrive and get the support they need during the challenging transition phase between childhood and adulthood.

I have lived in Masschusetts all of my life - growing up and going through public schools in the blue-collar  town of Athol and then earning my BS in Civil Engineering from WPI.  I work in the railroad industry.

My wife Julie and I have owned our home on Pinckney Street for 10 years.   Since we’ve lived there we have been blessed with two wonderful children:  Troy, age 5, and Hank, age 3.   Troy is in Kindergarten at the East Somerville Community School and Hank is enrolled at the Somerville Childcare Center, inside Somerville High School.   Julie and I have been involved in neighborhood and community organizations since 2004.   We’ve regularly attended clean-ups, meetings, events and have been active in numerous organizations including East Somerville Main Streets (where Julie served as treasurer for several years), East Somerville Neighbors for Change, the Somerville Dog Owner’s Group, and many others.   We are invested in our neighborhood and we are committed to the community.  East Somerville is our home and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

We became directly involved in the Schools in 2012 when Troy started SMILE Pre-K at the Capuano Early Childhood Center.   I immediately joined the School Council and began contributing what I could while learning some of the things our Schools and our District grapple with.  When the School Committee vacancy appeared, I submitted my resume for the Committee’s consideration and I thoroughly enjoyed the interview and selection process. I was so proud of my neighborhood and my co-applicants; both the number and the quality of people who stuck their necks out for East Somerville and for our schools.  It was an unfamiliar and somewhat nerve-wracking process - at least for me - but the pride I felt in my neighbors then is something that sticks with me today as I knock on doors and meet more of them. The process itself was good for me, and although it  took some twists and turns,  I was very pleased to ultimately get the opportunity to serve on the School Committee.  As I have said before in various venues, representing Ward 1 is an honor and a privilege, and I would love to continue to do so.

Because I’m involved as a parent, yet I realize that whether you have children in our schools or not we must  recognize that our schools have really no peers in their importance as community institutions.   I realize that we must work together to continue to improve them and that the School Committee provides a vital role in this.   Though our District and our schools are, by law and good sense, administered and staffed by professional educators, our democracy demands that these professionals are held accountable to the Community who funds them and entrusts them with our children.    

Because I am cognizant of the diversity in our community, particularly amongst East Somerville families with children in our schools.  I see this as more of a strength than anything else - and there is no place on earth I'd rather raise my boys and send them to school.  Because I believe leadership sometimes means standing up and taking a stand, but even more often means being able to listen to and communicate with people from very different backgrounds and points of view.