Jackie Figueira aims to represent Beaver Meadow School and listen to all perspectives as an incoming member of the Concord Board of Education.
Figueira, who has two children in the district and is an active volunteer with Beaver Meadow, is running unopposed in Zone A, which includes city wards 1-4. She said a school board race was not on her radar until people in the Beaver Meadow community reached out to her.
“I went home and told my husband about the conversation, and I was expecting him to say we’re too busy anyway, you’re doing all these things, we’re trying to juggle it all,” Figueira said. “And he was like, ‘You know, you really would be a good fit.'”
Figueira works at Hypertherm, a manufacturing organization in Hanover, where she supervises and helps standardize manufacturing processes. As an engineer, Figueira said logic and data tend to drive her actions. Gathering multiple perspectives is a quality she believes will translate from her job to the board.
“I want to gather the information first,” Figueira said. “So, hopefully, I think that’s why people reached out and thought I would be a good fit.”
As a volunteer at Beaver Meadow, Figueira takes photos for school plays and other events. She said she has never thought to focus her camera only on her child; rather, she wants everyone to have their special moment captured. That instinct to look at the bigger picture and beyond her personal interests is another quality Figueira hopes will help her on the board.
Over the past few months, Figueira has learned more about the board’s duties and said she is drawn to having a hand in decisions about curriculum, spending and leadership.
Long-term impacts of the board’s decisions is another area Figueira wants to focus on. She pointed to Rundlett Middle School as an example of a project that would have been less expensive if the district had made the right choices about maintaining the building years ago.
“Some of our decisions that are made today might cost us five or 10 years down the road, and I think that’s a lot of where we are right now. … Decisions that either were or weren’t made 15 to 20 years ago are impacting us now,” Figueira said.
Balancing costs and student services is one of the board’s biggest challenges, Figueira said. From talking to people, she has found that a lot of neighbors and residents are anxious to find out the property tax rate that will be set at the end of this month.
Other challenges Figueira foresees include figuring out how declining enrollment impacts current decisions, and learning how the district can be more accessible to all students.
As a board member, Figueira said it would be important to communicate decisions and information with anyone who is interested. Her preference is to form small groups to discuss education decisions and issues. Regardless of the setting, whether it’s at the grocery store or at a neighborhood campfire, Figueira said she will be open to chatting and answering questions.
Talking with current and previous board members is another way Figueira said she plans to find ideas and inform her perspective.
“I will take any and all of those ideas that come about,” Figueira said.
