My name is Daniel Alfred and I am running for Holliston School Committee. My wife and I moved to Holliston in 2011 and have two daughters (6th and 4th grade) who have been in the Holliston Public Schools since preschool and were/are part of French immersion program. For the past 11 years I have been a member of Holliston’s Finance Committee, most recently serving as vice chairman; I also served as a liaison between FinCom and the schools for three years. I have a strong track record of voting to support the schools’ financial needs. In my professional life, I research, recommend and monitor investments for a large regional bank in Boston.
I am running for School Committee now because I believe that my financial skills will be a crucial benefit to the school district. I believe that over the next three to five years, financial decisions will be even more important to the long-term success of our school community than ever before. The combination of funding and building a new High School while also crafting a sustainable school budget are critical in ensuring that Holliston can be a competitive school district. I have showed dedicated commitment as a public service volunteer within town government and strong support for our schools.
I believe that Holliston has incredible educators and staff and that we need to work to ensure that they are given the resources and tools to ensure they are as successful as possible.
At its core, my campaign is about three “Rs” for the Holliston Public Schools:
- Respect
- I will ensure that our teachers and staff are AND feel respected. I have spoken with many of teachers and staff and a common theme has been a feeling of lack of respect and trust placed in them. That needs to be remediated immediately and I will listen to parents, teachers and residents about their specific concerns as well as their suggested solutions to this problem.
- I want our students to respect each other, the teachers and staff, the school buildings and the community by working to eliminate the incidents of racism, antisemitism, homophobia and general disrespect.
- Repair
- I will work to repair the relationship between the teachers/staff and administration. This will be a heavy lift, but I believe we all want what is best for the students and can come together to do this.
- COVID has taken an enormous toll on the mental health of our kids and educators and parents are feeling the fallout. I will ensure that we have the proper resources in place to support our children and the community that supports them.
- I also will make sure we are properly maintaining our buildings, where staff works and our kids learn.
- Rebuild
- I will work to rebuild trust amongst community members so that we can more cooperatively move Holliston forward and ensure that we continue to be a top performing school system.
- I will fight for state funding for a new high school in Holliston. Our current high school is just not able to handle the educational demands of the 21st century and is in unacceptable condition for our children and staff.
I look forward to this role and opportunity to apply my experience and skillset to ensure the best for the Holliston Public Schools. I humbly ask for your vote on Tuesday, May 23rd at Holliston High School.
Best of luck.
Daniel, I am impressed with your platform and vision for the future of the Holliston Schools. Looking forward to seeing your progress.