School Committee Member Kathleen Dowcett annolunced her resignation from the committee on December 28th. Following is her letter to the residents of Waltham:

Dear Waltham Residents,

I write to share with you that I am resigning my position on the Waltham School Committee. It has been a pleasure and privilege to serve for three years, and I am deeply grateful to all who supported me throughout the election process and thereafter. While the decision to step down a year before the expiration of my term is a difficult one, it is made immeasurably easier with the knowledge that I will continue to work on behalf of Waltham youth and families.

Last June I was hired as the Executive Director of the Waltham Partnership for Youth. Leading the partnership is my dream job. My entire career has been dedicated to increasing opportunities for youth. While I’ve done this in many places, I made the decision a decade ago to focus my efforts right here in my hometown. I was fortunate enough to begin as a Reading teacher at McDevitt Middle School, and then as an English teacher at Kennedy. I loved the classroom. I will always consider myself a teacher first. However, I increasingly felt the need to work at the district and policy level. To that end, I left the classroom to pursue a degree in public policy and a seat on the school committee.

Both of those experiences have deepened my belief that, while schools play a vital role in a child’s development, it is the collective responsibility of the entire community to provide for the wellbeing of our youth. My role at the Partnership for Youth will allow me to establish and strengthen ties between the schools, the business community, universities, and other community partners in order to create a wide range of high-quality supports and learning experiences for Waltham youth. I have a clear vision for what the Waltham Partnership for Youth can be; unfortunately, working to make that vision a reality means stepping down from the school committee in order to avoid conflicts of interest.

I say goodbye to my colleagues on the committee with a heavy heart, but I also leave with great confidence that our school district is in the right hands. We are implementing an educational plan that is second to none and, under Dr. Echelson’s leadership, we are well positioned to take our district from good to great. I look forward to being a partner in that work in the years to come – not as a school committee member but here in Waltham nonetheless, on behalf of the Waltham Partnership for Youth.

Sincerely,

Kaytie Dowcett