It’s Margaret, not Meg or Peg, not Margie or Maggie . . . Margaret Eberhardt, plain and direct.
Eberhardt, one of 4 candidates hoping to capture one of the two open seats on the school committee, is all education all the time.
“Education is the most powerful tool we have.”
Eberhardt has a Master’s in Eduction and is currently an administrator at Children’s Happy Day School in West Roxbury. Her involvement with education does not end when she leaves the office. She is serving or has served on the Glover PTO, The Milton Foundation for Education, Co-chair of Celebration for Education 2009, and co-coordinator of the Milton Outdoor Classroom Project.
The Outdoor classroom now approximately 6 years old is one of her babies. Eberhardt describes it as a wonderful opportunity to engage students who have a hard time at their desk.”Kids who are loud and boisterous in class become completely silent.” It enables teachers to diversify how they teach and “connect learning to the world you live in.”
She concludes that, “Education is the most important tool we have,” and running for school Committee is the “next logical step in my committment to the town. It is the best use of my skill set.”
“[Children] . . . They’re your message to the future.”
According to Eberhardt, she is the strongest candidate in the field, because she will be the best advocate for the schools, their policies, and programs within the community. “An investment in the schools is an investment in the town,” she states.
She believes her experience with educational evaluation and planning and her ability to carry out strategies to meet goals will serve her well should she win the seat.
And with two students in the Milton schools, is she satisfied? ” ‘Fugedaboudit’ as we say on Long Island.” That’s a compliment.
She views her children as her greatest achievement. “They’re your message to the future.”
“We are going to survive together or sink together.”
However, the schools have issues. The budget is “tough – it really is [but] there are always ways to think collaboratively.” Finance is not her forte. “It would be a learning curve for me.”
But finance is not the only issue that might benefit from collaboration. The need for collaboration and communication come up frequently in the conversation regarding what needs to be worked on. Eberhardt is concerned about the level of “agitation” that comes up from time to time within the community. “How do we get to the place where people are so agitated? she asks. As an example, she mentions the co-taught classrooms. These are classrooms in which there are two teachers one of whom is a special needs teacher. They have been successful. Yet the co-taught classroom was a change, and change upsets people. Eberhardt would seek to engage the community and educate them in an attempt to avoid upsets when change is imminent. “We are going to survive together or sink together.”
“Nothing worth doing is easy.”
Her overarching goal is to have parents of students think of themselves not as Tucker parents, or French parents, or special needs parents but simply as Milton Public School parents. “I would be so happy if I could get ten people to think that way.”
It sounds simpler than it is. “Nothing worth doing is easy.”