Julie Schreiner-Oldham is the new interim member of the School Committee as of Jan. 11. Prior to her election to the Committee, she served as the co-president of the Baker PTO. She has two children who attend the Baker school and a two-year-old. When her youngest daughter was born, Schreiner-Oldham, an attorney, decided to take some time off from practicing law and stay at home with her children. 

Why did you apply for the position as a member of the School Committee?

I’ve always cared a lot about the schools and a lot about this school system. I think, particularly now, there are a lot of really important issues that are facing our schools with the ninth school and the high school expansion, and I’ve really seen first hand how overcrowding has affected Baker school. Then, being part of the PTO, I’ve also learned a lot about all of the other schools that are in town, and I have seen that overcrowding has had very similar impacts on the school and the kids’ experiences at the schools. I think that’s something that’s going to continue in the schools and, in my opinion, right now that’s one of the most important issues that’s facing all the schools in Brookline. And then there are other things about the schools that I really care very strongly about, like special education and the programming that we’re bringing into the classrooms. I applied because I have slowly become more and more involved in the school and I think that being on the School Committee is a very effective way to become more involved in the school system and to learn more about different issues.

You said you’ve experienced some of the effects of overcrowding first hand at Baker. What are those effects?

My daughter, who’s in 4th grade now, is part of one of the classes that expanded an additional section. Traditionally at Baker the sections are four classes in each grade, and in her grade, just because of the number of students they had, they added an additional section. So they needed to bring in a new teacher and there were a lot more students per class than is the ideal number that the district has set. I’m not sure exactly which year it was, but over the last few years we received a letter at the beginning of the year that said that her grade was going to be over what the district considers to be an acceptable number of students per class. So they gave everyone the option of either moving to a different school or staying in the grade, and we just saw a difference between having smaller classes and having these larger size classes. I think that the number of students can affect the experience that each of the kids has, the amount of time that the teacher has to spend in small groups and on individual activities within the class. They have music class that takes place in the auditorium rather than in the classroom setting. There have been a lot of activities that innovative parents and students have wanted to start at this school but there’s just not the space; there’s not a common area space to be used for outside-of-school activities. So I think that those kind of overcrowding issues have school-wide impacts that just make the experience — it’s still a wonderful, great experience — not ideal. 

What are some of the ways you’re hoping to solve those issues while on the school committee?

I think the primary way would be to really, to the extent that I’m able to, help with the ninth school and the chosen location for the ninth school at Baldwin, help to answer community questions and just to listen to the experts that have been working to evaluate the school. I think that building a ninth school is the first way that we can address the overcrowding in the district. 

How will you bring your perspective to the committee as the only School Committee member from South Brookline?

I do think it’s important to make decisions for the whole district, so it’s nice to have the perspective of someone from South Brookline on the committee because each school is a little bit different and each community is a little bit different. I think it’s important to bring those different perspectives to the School Committee so that we can hear different voices and consider other perspectives. An example of that is that in South Brookline, a lot of the community members might be willing to walk farther to get to school than in North Brookline, where the schools are a lot closer together. And so here a lot of the parents already walk their kid a fair distance to get to Baker and so they might be willing to walk further. I think things like that are just as important to think about when everyone’s making decisions about things. Many people feel that the South Brookline perspective has not had a voice on the committee. When I was considering running for School Committee, a lot of people encouraged me to do it and asked me to run for it. There’s also not a member from South Brookline on the Board of Selectmen, and that is something that would be important as well. 

Are you planning to run for the full-term spot on the committee in May?

I am going to run for School Committee in May.