Matthew Schlager
Matthew Schlager will bring his experience as a health care official, legislative aide, and his work with the Stratford school system to office when you help elect him to the Stratford Board of Education on November 2nd.
Matt has lived in Stratford for 22 years. He is the married father of two Stratford Public School students, and is eager to make sure town education funding goes to the classroom instead of being eaten up by the growing number of middle-level administrators in the system.
While a student at Northeastern University, Matt was an intern in Washington DC, where he worked in the Massachusetts State/Federal Relations Office. He again saw government from the inside when he worked as a legislative aide at the State Capital in Hartford, where he was employed by the Senate Democrats and also worked for the Committee on the Environment. He now works in the Legal and Risk Management Department at Yale New Haven Health.
In Stratford, Matt joined Parent SEE (Parents Supporting Excellence in Education), which helped give him an inside view of our school district’s budget and how it is developed. He learned how to be an advocate for equity in education due to obstacles he had found while navigating the IEP (Individualized Educational Plan) process for his children.
Matt also served on the Superintendent’s school re-entry committee, then served on the Portrait of Graduate Committee.
“With a new school superintendent coming on board, it is an exciting time to join the Board of Ed,” Matt says, “and make sure all the processes are transparent to people, fair and equitable, and that every dollar we spend goes as closely as possible to the students in the classroom.”
Matt has four issues he is looking to focus on as a BOE member:
- Ensure Equity Across the District.
- Advocate for Special Education.
- Invest in Teachers and their classrooms.
- Revamp the current BOE meeting protocols by allowing members of the public to speak on any issue they want, not limited to the agenda.
Feel free to reach out to Matt at [email protected] if you wish to talk further.
