Candidate profile: Juelis hopes to offer experience as educator to School Committee

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

Craig Juelis is used to School Committee meetings. His usual view, however, has been facing one rather than being on the board himself.

 Juelis, who has two kids in the Grafton schools,has a long career as an educator, working first as a history teacher before moving to the administrative side. He’s served as a high school principal in Attleboro and most recently was a middle school principal in Medway.

He now works as a principal coordinator in the construction industry.

“When challenges come up, you don’t shy away from them,” he said. “When I started thinking about School Committee — I have the experience as an educator and a parent, and that’s useful when it comes to setting School Committee policy

“We’re coming out of a pandemic where students were almost completely out of school for two years,” he added. “We need to focus on how to close the gaps.”

Over the past year, he’s been approached by people who sought advice on how to reach out to a classroom teacher or principal.

“People want to know more about what their children are learning,” he said. “Sometimes it doesn’t meet with their values and they don’t feel they can speak on it, whether it’s in the classroom or in the assemblies the schools are having.

“With social media, we’ve gotten to the point where people will ask a question and someone around town just claps back at them.”

Touching on recent discussions about challenged books and Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” policy, he recalled encountering parents with concerns about books or issues taught in classrooms.

“I’ve worked with very good school librarians who are good at finding books at the students’ level,” he said. “If you want independent thinkers, you cannot ban materials. It almost whiplashes back and forth. Why does it bother you that this is here?”

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