Meet the Middleboro School Committee candidate Krysten Phillips

MIDDLEBORO — Middleboro schools alumni and district parent, Krysten Phillips, said she wants to use her feeling of not being heard as a parent to enact change on the school committee.

Phillips is a lifelong Middleboro resident, and she and her husband are both Middleboro High School alumni. She has an associates science degree in Medical Assistance and received a nursing degree from Bay State College. 

Her twin sons who attend Mary K. Goode Elementary School are a driving force for her candidacy, she said.

She said both of her children receive special education services, and she would like to see a return of strong leadership to fill the roles of special education director and superintendent. Phillips wants a transparent and collaborative superintendent candidate who listens first. 

She is running for a committee seat because she sees a lack of leadership at the district and sparse communication between committee members and parents. Phillips said she would bring her advocacy skills she’s built over the years to make more voices heard in the district. 

“I think we can do better for our children, and I truly think that I can't complain about the current situation if I'm not going to try to be a part of the solution,” Phillips said.

She currently works as a registered nurse, an occupation she’s been in for the past 14 years. Phillips said her work experience has given her a “nursing mentality brain, where there's no problem you can't solve.” 

She said she technically works two jobs: as a psychiatric visiting nurse and in psychiatric case management. The roles entail many moving parts as she advocates patient needs to a “huge pool” of insurance companies and healthcare vendors.

“I advocate for complete strangers, but now I could be in a position of advocating for our children which hold a sacred place in my heart,” Phillips said.

She has coached her son’s little league baseball team for about two years, and has volunteered on the Mary K. Goode School’s Parent Teacher Association for three years.

As a parent, she said she finds the school committee’s three-minute public comment rule as “dismissive,” and if elected she would push to remove the rule to make way for an “open forum” during meetings.

“You just feel very dismissed, you don't feel acknowledged and you don't feel heard,” Phillips said. “In my experience, you never can find a good solution if you don't have a conversation.”

Phillips said she’s seen passionate parents and teachers speak their minds at meetings only to be met with “your time is up” instead of a response or acknowledgement that the speaker was heard.

Concerning the $2.2 million budget deficit, she said she’s concerned for her children’s education if their services are hamstringed by teacher and program cuts. 

She said consolidating positions, renting out administrative buildings and cutting “non-student facing” positions is how she would approach the deficit.

“Ultimately, I'm not [running for the committee] because I'm bored. I'm doing this because I have children and I have a stake in the game — my kids are my everything,” she said.