Donna Woodcock would bring decades of insights to Greenfield school board seat

By JOSHUA SOLOMON

Recorder Staff

Published: 11-01-2017 7:09 PM

GREENFIELD — After stepping down as principal of Greenfield High School last year, Donna Woodcock is now seeking candidacy as School Committee member for the two-year seat.

Running against Susan Eckstrom, whose specialty comes in her special education knowledge, Woodcock will look to leverage her deep understanding from decades in the school system in Greenfield.

“I think that I’ve learned a lot in my many years of education,” Woodcock said. “I think I can still in this way help to continue to improve the Greenfield schools. We had a pretty severe meltdown there 10 years ago. I think we’ve come back from that but I think we can always improve and not be content with what’s going on.”

On top of looking to keep Greenfield Public Schools trending upward since budget issues about a decade ago, Woodcock hopes to study a few items of note: the start time of schools to see if it’s worth pushing it later, the per pupil costs and teachers salaries, which she pointed to as being relatively low compared with other neighboring districts, and to find more grant opportunities to ease the burden on the budget.

Woodcock also hopes to focus on securing a business manager for the School Committee. The latest manager left for a new job and the school has a temporary team running its finances at a per-hour rate. Tied in with the business side of things, Woodcock would like to examine the school’s revolving funds account.

“There are times when districts can have some kind of issue that can really damage a budget, and so I think it’s important to plan for those situations such as in revolving accounts and making sure you don’t spend all of that money,” Woodcock said. “Just as people do with a savings account, just because it’s there, doesn’t mean you spend it.”

She said her motivation for applying for a School Committee seat was that she wanted to continue to be involved with the schools. Similar to her competition, Woodcock wanted to run for the two-year seat so that she could ensure she would be able to fulfill the whole commitment.

Woodcock added that it was not a long-term plan to run for School Committee, just like she said she never thought she would be an administrator during her teaching career.

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There are several areas that she would like to study in more depth with the School Committee to understand if they are worth adjusting. She first mentioned the starting time of schools.

“Kids going out to a bus stop before 7 o’clock in the town of Greenfield,” Woodcock said. “That’s something I’d like to look at and have a conversation with the community, with the students and the parents.”

Woodcock also pointed to her initial research that showed that Greenfield Public Schools ranks in the bottom tier of school districts across Franklin County and Athol in terms of per pupil costs and teacher pay, saying the committee needs to “investigate that.”

She would like to look for alternative revenue streams, other than the taxpayer dollars contributing to the budget. She hopes they can find other grants to fund costs.

In her first year removed from the school system, Woodcock thinks that this may be the right place for her.

“People said ‘you understand schools.’ ‘You would be a good candidate.’ Again, if I didn’t think there was anything I could offer, I wouldn’t run,” Woodcock said. “But I think my knowledge of education is helpful.”

The election is Nov. 7.

Reach Joshua Solomon at:

413-772-0261, ext. 264

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