I write to ask you to join me in voting for Holly Morand for School Committee on May 16th. Our community has the rare opportunity to fill three seats on this critical board and our choice for the two-year seat could not be more important. Our choice cannot be a one-issue candidate. Rather, we need a candidate who can help our community continue to emerge from a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic and help shepherd our schools into the future. We need a candidate with the broad skill set and expertise to confront the broader, bigger challenges facing our schools, such as our significant community growth, budget constraints, our mental health crisis, and retaining and attracting the faculty, administrators and programs that make the Hopkinton school system one of the best in the commonwealth.

We need Holly Morand.

For the two-year race, Holly’s qualifications are unparalleled. Holly is a social worker, devoted volunteer, scientist and researcher. Her service to our town — especially as a social worker and in-school counselor — offers unique insight on the struggles Hopkinton school families are now facing. Her service as a devoted volunteer and former president of the Hopkinton PTA reveals depth of knowledge of our schools. Her unique expertise in social work and behavioral health will be crucial aids as our community confronts an unprecedented mental health crisis.

I first came to know Holly for her important work advocating for compassionate and smart school policies during the pandemic. In fact, along with 352 other Hopkinton residents, I signed onto the last letter Holly co-authored: one that asked our School Committee to off-ramp to optional masking on March 14 to accommodate the potential February vacation exposures. With hundreds, I proudly signed onto Holly’s letter because it embraced science, equity and a safe transition into optional masking in our schools.

Even though school masking (thankfully!) is now a moot issue, I appreciate a candidate with gravitas. What Holly’s advocacy showed was a deliberative process that we need in a School Committee member. We need someone who can process complex data; someone who values content area expertise when necessary; someone who balances pragmatics and equity with sophistication and compassion. What we need for the vast and complex issues facing the new School Committee is Holly Morand.

— Caitlin Condon, Hopkinton

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