Candidate profile: Marr seeks re-election to School Committee after a term marked by Covid

Part of a series on the four candidates for Grafton School Committee in the May 17 election.

Amy Marr knew there would be challenges when she ran for School Committee in 2019 — an override was projected, the schools needed long-delayed repairs, and the wave of incoming students were going to need more teachers.

“I thought it was a natural extension of what I had already been doing as a volunteer in the schools,” said Marr, whose oldest daughter will graduate from Grafton High School in June as her youngest finishes up the the middle school. 

“It certainly didn’t turn out to be what I planned on,” she said dryly.

She didn’t expect her first term would be marked by a pandemic that would empty schools, that students would spend a year in virtual classrooms taught by teachers who had little time to prepare for the complete educational change.

She certainly didn’t realize that becoming chair her third year would make her the face of the mask mandate for parents who believed COVID-19 had less risk than masks or vaccines, who talked about Critical Race Theory and decried policies that supported LGTBQ students and families.

“It’s frustrating to hear people say they want more parental involvement over what is taught in the classroom when we have to beg for parents to get involved now,” she said. “We send out a survey and we might get 300 responses back. What do parents want? I don’t know, and I don’t necessarily think it’s up to the School Committee to know. Every decision I make is based on the discourse we have at that time.”

As an example, she remembers her thoughts about sports fees at the beginning of her time on the committee — she was for them. Now, after the pandemic “folks are suffering… if we had sports fees, they couldn’t afford it. It’s something that’s bringing the kids together right now.”

They’ve also embraced the new Grafton Gator mascot and have dubbed their cheering section “The Swamp.”

Marr is grateful for the ARPA funds, which are paying for the long-needed HVAC system at Grafton Middle School and other postponed repairs around the district. The schools are also benefiting from last year’s Proposition 2 1/2 override, which has allowed for additional staffing.

Marr is critical of the state’s continued use of standardized testing, including its insistence on requiring MCAS during the second year of the pandemic.

“I don’t think that the MCAS works,” she said. “We spend time preparing the kids for them, but what are they learning?”

What has Marr learned from her past three years? Flexibility is a must for the School Committee and the department they oversee,

“I don’t have a specific plan,” Marr said. “I just want the kids in Grafton to get as good of an education as we can give them.”

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