To the editor:

We have some very important elections coming up in April. One election that I feel exceptionally passionate about is the School Committee. There are two open seats for the one year term and I feel that Jenny Sheehan is highly qualified and would be a phenomenal fit to fill one of those two seats due to her real-world leadership experience, tireless advocacy to better our school system, and her ability to hold people accountable in a respectful and problem-solving manner. 

To me, real-world leadership experience is the single most important quality we need to look for in any of our elected town leaders. Leadership is a learned, carefully honed, and constantly worked on skill that is best exemplified by those who consistently lead in all areas of life and Jenny has a long history of leadership dating back to her captaining the Boston University women’s lacrosse team and carrying over to her being a successful multi-location business owner today. Jenny is also the president of the Bethlehem School PTO and the director of community relations for the Summer Street School PTO. Jenny is a natural leader in many areas and with that comes an inherent understanding of holding people accountable to a high-performance culture and having a growth mindset. 

As a working mother of three young children, Jenny has always made and currently makes the time to tirelessly advocate for all of our children as a regular at School Committee and PTO meetings. It is not easy to get up in front of hundreds of people to publicly voice what you and many others in the town believe in and hold others accountable, yet Jenny has done so time and time again in a thoughtful, fact-based, solution-seeking manner. Jenny is a classic example of someone who does the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing, not to win friends or gain votes. What many do not have visibility to is her countless hours of “behind the scenes” work as well in her meeting with parents, teachers, principals, and School Committee members to try to help find solutions to the many issues our schools are facing. Jenny is a firm believer that if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem, and Jenny continuously offers solutions to our schools’ and our school leadership’s problems. 

In closing, what the Lynnfield School Committee needs most right now are proven leaders who will hold those around them accountable. Jenny Sheehan meets and exceeds these expectations. 

For the above reasons, I will be enthusiastically voting Jenny Sheehan for School Committee and I ask you all to do the same. 

Respectfully,

Mark Vitagliano