Candidates urge stronger family engagement, school site councils and clearer bullying reporting

Candidates at the Lowell School Committee forum emphasized family engagement and local school governance as tools to improve student safety and accountability.

Zoe Zuniku described school site councils as a legally required forum for family and community input and proposed stronger, consistently functioning councils in every school. She suggested school-based bullying committees composed of staff, parents and community members to triage and respond to incidents and called for “specificity” and transparency in reporting.

Sherry O'Connor Barbosa described improvements to the district’s online bullying reporting that she observed, praising clearer reporting buttons and timelier investigations but saying outcomes are not always satisfactory and that parents need clearer instructions on the process. Connie Martin said restorative practices at the high school level have been constructive and urged parents to report incidents so staff can intervene, while Dominic Lehi suggested gathering both school-reported incident counts and victim reports to better understand underreporting.

Candidates also supported expanded translation and interpretation services for district events and classroom activities and backing student representatives to participate in committee meetings where allowed by law.

What was not decided: The forum produced proposals and campaign positions rather than agreed-upon procedures. Candidates called for consistent implementation of site councils, clearer reporting flows and stronger multilingual outreach.

Ending: Candidates encouraged families to use existing reporting mechanisms and to engage with school site councils to improve safety and responsiveness.