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Wicked Local
Brookline has several contested races leading up to the May 4 town election, with voters set to weigh in on two separate School Committee races.
In the running for the uncontested three-year School Committee seats are current committee members David Arenas Pearlman, Jennifer L. Monopoli and Dimitry Anselme. However, there are also two candidates vying for one open one-year seat on the committee.
We invited candidates in contested townwide races to introduce themselves and answer some questions about the positions they hope to serve. Here s what the two candidates for the one-year School Committee seat had to say.
Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Wicked Local
After the pandemic strained Brookline’s already-tight finances, the town’s budget is on the mend heading into fiscal 2022, according to Town Administrator Mel Kleckner.
Presenting the town’s FY22 financial plan to the Select Board last week, Kleckner called the plan a “recovery budget,” anticipating a gradual recuperation from pandemic-era revenue loss and a resumption of normal municipal operations.
“We see FY22 as a transition to go back and restore and get back to somewhat of a normal operation,” he told the Select Board.
The town’s $365.5 million budget marks a 4.8% increase over 2021 and assumes no additional federal stimulus funding, although President Joe Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion stimulus package that would include funding for state and local governments.
BEF award created in honor of late Brookline teacher
Community Content
The Brookline Education Foundation recently announced the creation of the David Pradell Award, in honor of a middle school teacher who taught at the Lawrence and Driscoll Schools for 30 years.
In the 1960s, Pradell taught several classes of a gifted and talented program, including his Driscoll School class of 1966, who conceived and initially funded the award. They remained in touch with him until his death in September 2020.
As well as teaching, Pradell served as a marine during the Korean War, founded and ran the Boston Film Center from 1961 to 1973, operated a theater that featured European cinema and puppet shows, travelled extensively and wrote a book about it, worked for FEMA disaster relief in his 80s, remodeled Victorian homes and was the father of six children.