CINDY SULLIVAN
WESTFIELD – As one of three incumbents running to reclaim their seat on the Westfield School Committee, Cindy Sullivan is trying to utilize a lifetime of social work to sway voters to give her another term.
The current executive director of the Town of Southwick’s Council on Aging, Sullivan has served with citizens on the opposite end of the age spectrum for many years prior to her current position, having worked with children in various capacities since graduating from Springfield College with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1994.
“When I was a social worker, I was in and out of schools, working in two different states working with kids,” she said. “You advocate for kids in a lot of ways, including schooling.”
Sullivan has worked as an adolescent specialist for the Center for Human Development and as a Family Resource Coordinator for Dare Family Services, where she worked with therapeutic foster children, training foster parents, handling case management of foster children, and matching children to foster homes.
She also worked in crisis management, conducting criminal background checks, and writing assessments of foster homes.
It is her experience with these kids that has given her a unique viewpoint on the committee, especially regarding the concept of “curriculum continuity.”
“I couldn’t move a foster child within the district or another district and have them learn the same thing,” Sullivan said of the state of the education system when she was elected four years ago. “It wasn’t just Westfield, though. It is a state issue, a national issue. Kids can’t move ahead unless they have the materials to move ahead.”
Sullivan believes that the current status of the district is improving, thanks to the aligning of the core curriculum in reading and math, and she praised Superintendent Suzanne Scallion and the committee for recognizing the need to do so.
In addition to her work with children, Sullivan has two children in the school system, and volunteered extensively during her first term on the committee, in addition to serving on a human resource subcommittee on bullying.
Sullivan hopes to maintain the ascendance of the performance of the city’s schools by also encouraging professional development for teachers, pushing for financial responsibility, and has also founded the Westfield Education Foundation for enrichment of the city’s students, an organization which is just making up its board of around 20 members.
“A 21st century education is the key. The budget can’t supply everything,” she said. “Unless we want to raise taxes, which we can’t do.”
