Grafton SEPAC endorses Liora Bram for School Committee

If you’re not a parent of a student who receives special education services, perhaps you’re not aware of the skills that make us tireless advocates for our kids. We need to manage multiple relationships, with multiple teacher and specialists, to help our students access the curriculum. We have to research, study, and learn a whole host of teaching methods to help find the ones that are going to work best for our particular student. And we need to constantly think about
what success looks like for our student, and what tools to ask for so they can get there.

School Committee candidate Liora Bram possesses all of these skills — and knows how to leverage them for the benefit of all of our students in Grafton. After having worked with Liora for the past 18 months on the Grafton Special Education Advisory Committee (SEPAC) Board, let us share with you the specific skills she has that will make her an asset to the school committee.

She’s a bridge builder. Liora’s motto is “assume good intentions” – and with that as her guiding principle, she helped to turn a contentious relationship between SEPAC and the schools into one of collaboration and healthy communication, even when there are disagreements or challenges.

She works hard to put herself in other people’s shoes. Every family and every student are different. Liora truly represents everyone – and advocates tirelessly for a Grafton Public Schools community that includes all types of learners and all types of families. She’ll represent every student no matter who they are.

She is a tireless learner – For the last 18 months, Liora has been studying the work of different education experts, and following the writings of several disability self-advocates to better educate herself on the best methods for teaching kids with learning differences, and to understand how people with disabilities want to access their communities. She has brought these learnings to the SEPAC group – sometimes in difficult conversations – to help us to better meet the needs of our diverse group of families and students. We know she will being this committed sense of study to her role advocating for all of our students as part of the school committee.

Finally, she is a fierce inclusion advocate. Every kid in the Grafton Public Schools matters and deserves a chance to reach their potential. Knowing Liora like we do, we know she will fight for every one of them to get what they need.

This year’s School Committee race is an important one. If you want an inclusive school community that works for all of our students, please vote Liora Bram on May 17.

SEPAC Board
Stella Dikas, Chair
Heather Nadeau, Treasurer
Sarah Goggin, Secretary