SCHOOL COMmITTEE

Candidate Website/Social Media Address

http://www.dasheforfreedom.com/

Candidate Biography

Dashe’s approach to education may be different from the norm, but comes with dedication, love, and hard work. She is a passionate wife and mother of four who deeply believes in the integrity of America’s founding principles. She currently homeschools 3 of her 4 children with local families in and around the area.

She graduated from Bridgewater State College, where she earned a degree in Psychology. Dashe holds a graduate degree in Organizational Leadership from the University of the Rockies with a previous career in Human Resource Management. For the last 6 years, she has been teaching parents and children practical approaches to organize their thoughts, feelings, and emotions. This involves implementing structure, creativity, and flexibility so children and parents can thrive spiritually, emotionally, and physically.

Dashe has owned property in town for over 11 years. Originally, she and her husband moved to Franklin for the school systems, the growing activities, and morale of the downtown area. She went into labor at the Alumni Restaurant with her first child and got married at the Franklin Town Hall.

She will fight through societal pressures for families to feel empowered and safe sharing opinions and experiences. She will instill confidence within the community, and defend their God given freedoms, while encouraging families to take charge of their children’s education.

Franklin families deserve the liberty of feeling safe, heard, and respected, even when there is a disagreement. She hopes to help be the change we all wish to see.

What accomplishments are you most proud of during your most recent tenure? Or, if you are a new candidate, what achievements make you most qualified for the position?

One of my greatest accomplishments is honoring my true identity and meeting people where they are. Accepting individuals for who they are and seeing them as valuable, purposeful beings, while seeing and hearing them fully. I empower others to stand up for themselves and encourage them to lead with their inner light.

The meaning of diversity is to understand that each individual is unique, and recognizing their individual differences is a blessing. As a community, we have forgotten our God given gifts and we have become guilty by making assumptions of our neighbors, labeling others, and creating conflict, especially in front of the kids. This is absolutely a COMMUNITY issue and I believe we are deeply failing our children. We have parents telling children to stay away from other children because of their families beliefs, morals, and values. We have children who are mimicking their parents behavior and creating issues on the "playground" where child are being left out for more than just the color of their skin - for example, maybe a medical condition or who the even voted for. And now we have a school system telling children what to think, believe, and how to act.

What is your plan to make Franklin more appealing to teachers?

Community development. I think one of the greatest gifts to give teachers is for parents to accept that they are the primary educators. We parents are responsible for the emotional, social, and physical needs of our children. No teacher, faculty staff member, or coach will know your child better than YOU. To understand your child, you need to learn more about yourself. I would like to help parents learn more about themselves, so they can better understand their children.

What is your plan to increase community involvement in School Community bi-weekly meetings, District impacting changes, and other events?

First and foremost, parents need to feel like they are being heard. I think many School Committee meetings, especially over the last 1.5 years, we have seen more and more parents feeling far from heard. If anything, they are very frustrated with the quality of the schools and its creating less school community and more division. I think we should have more organized voting polls, especially on topics being implemented into the schools for our children's educational well-being. I have seen many committed parents who are willing to get involved in their child's emotional and social well-being, but silenced because their methods, suggestions, and beliefs are the opposite of the schools initiatives.

As we focus on more inclusion, especially within the schools, we are creating more separation within our communities and neighborhoods.

Davis Thayer was the oldest Franklin school, but there are others that are close to being above the recommended age of a school building. What is your plan to address the aging schools in Franklin?

I think we spend a lot of time talking about money and moving children around as if they would just bounce back. One of the most common phrases I hear is "children are so resilient". This is far from the truth. The first 7 years of a child's life, helps to establish their emotional and social well-being into adulthood. Most adults, mentally block out this time frame with little to no memory of what occurred. Leaving massive transitions, triggers, and emotional disturbances with little to no answers.

My first concern with this goes back to... are we informing the parents? Meaning, are we really working with them to process the emotions of these children and families who would be part of the move? Have we asked the parents to be involved with this move? If there are some schools that are considered outdated, are parents aware of the timeline and if their child would be impacted? Are we mostly looking at the Elementary buildings? If so, this would impact the children emotional and social needs.

This is a wonderful opportunity for community development and parental volunteers. Sounds like this is an opportunity for us to build upon and really set up our kids to succeed. Especially if this is in the pipeline over the next 1-5 years.

What is your perspective on redistricting to better support school capacity?

We have teachers, facility, and students who have different views. Maybe we need to have a conversation about redistricting based on the needs of the community. Really getting to the bottom of what the community needs with different methodologies of teaching.

We know Franklin takes pride in being a diverse community. However, one size never fit all. Yes we have children who are unable to wear masks or get vaccines due to health and/or social/emotional issues. We also have children who learn differently. Many requiring an IEP. If anything, one of the many values C-19 brought, was parents realizing how much their child is struggling within the schools. Making online learning a real eye opener for parents to get more involved.

We need to focus on bringing trust back into the schools. Giving parents the opportunity to be seen and heard and findings ways where we can better accommodate the needs of the children, but also the morale of community.

This could be a wonderful opportunity to become less judgmental and accepting of others who may have different views or details within their lives, but overall want the same things. A quality education for their children and establish solid individual thinkers.

What is your position on continuing to increase diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in Franklin Public Schools?

I think these words mean different things to different people. If our focus is to create more diversity, equity, and inclusion in our schools, my first area of focus goes to... what can we do to as a community to fully embody the understanding of "love thy neighbor as thyself". And with that said, what are we doing learning to love ourselves? The world can be a scary place, but it can also be a place of faith, love, and prosperity. One of the very best ways to honor self identity is by learning the importance of breathing, meditating, and stretching.

If elected, I am looking to bring my strength of true identity and my ability to see people for who they are into the schools and the community of Franklin. Offer another perspective and find some common ground so parents, children, and community members can generate some levels of peace. For peace is more than just a flag, it is truly a way of living. I think it is time we learn to love ourselves before we can learn to love another. Especially if our goal is to find inner peace.