Kouchakdjian Announces Candidacy for Sudbury School Committee

My name is Lisa Kouchakdjian, and it is with much excitement that I announce my candidacy for Sudbury School Committee.  I have lived in Sudbury for 16 years.  For most of that time, I was a resident without having the benefit of children in the school system balancing my desire to invest in our schools while realizing the significant financial burden it posed.  Having grown up in Natick, I have a long-standing love for this area.  We all know what a fantastic town Sudbury is and what passionate, caring people live here.  What an exciting time to live in our town with all the positive change occurring with our continued investment in Sudbury’s infrastructure. 

Over the last couple of years I have become actively involved in Sudbury’s Special Education Parents’ Advisory Council (“SEPAC”).  I am presently the Vice Chair of that organization.  In this regard, it has been such a great experience to meet so many wonderful families in town.  I am always excited to talk with our residents about what they love about our educational services.  Listening to parents’ opinions about where we need to improve has also been extremely enlightening.  One of the reasons that I am running for school committee is that I believe we need to maintain such an open dialogue between our residents and administrators.  I am also completely committed to helping maintain the quality of our educational services.  Since we spend so much money on our school system, it concerns me that four of the five schools in the K-8 system have dropped to a Level 2 District in Massachusetts based upon the recent MCAS scores.  We need to determine (1) why this drop has occurred, and (2) what the specific plans are to get these schools back to their Level 1 status.

Over the next several weeks I will be campaigning all around town.  If you see me somewhere, please come up and introduce yourself, if you like.  Tell me what you are happy with regarding our K-8 school system, and tell me where you think we need to improve.  I am an excellent listener.  It is my objective to meet as many of our residents in town as I can over the next eight weeks or so.  In fact, as I canvas through town, I may ring your doorbell.  Since I am running against two incumbents, one who has been on the School Committee almost eighteen years, it will not be easy for me to be successful in my endeavor.  As a second generation diasporan Armenian in this country, however, my parents did not raise me to fear failure.  Win, lose or draw, if I get one more person excited about our school system, I will have been successful. 

If you would like to read more about me or my campaign, please visit my website at GoLisa.org  You can also e-mail me at lisa@golisa.org  My campaign is also on Facebook, and I have a Twitter account. 

Lisa V. Kouchakdjian