In one of the most competitive elections since the 2020 pandemic, there were three seats up for grabs on the Sharon School Committee, the group that is in charge of voting on a new academic calendar and the school budget, among other matters. 

Among the victors was Jeremy Kay, a Class of 2003 Sharon graduate who went on to Brown University for economics and political science, then graduate school at the University of Chicago. Returning to Sharon about three years ago to raise his daughter (who is four years old), he hopes that she will have the same experience in education as he did in this town.

Kay looks back on his time in the district with a sense of fondness and pride. 

Noting Sharon High as “harder than Brown,” Kay found his time at Sharon uniquely challenging with the range of courses and competition that is still notably present today, 21 years later. During his time in the Sharon Public Schools, his favorite classes were history / social studies classes, specifically AP Euro and AP Psychology. 

Kay also was involved with the Chess Team (they won the league when he played), theater, and president of the Politics clubs during his time here as a student.  

“Sharon High prepared me very well,” he said.

Now, as an elected official, he looks a great deal at data and elaborates on how he uses numbers to see the bigger picture, particularly with regards to the town budget. Currently, Sharon taxes are among the highest in the state, and many residents fear another increase in tax rates without spending cuts.

“One of the reasons I ran was to keep that in check,” he said.

With a daughter who soon will enter the Sharon schools, Kay acknowledges that he has an active investment in the system and therefore is more willing to pay for better education. Yet Kay fears that some residents would become more inclined to leave the community if they had no active investment in the school district.

“The higher the taxes are, the less people without kids want to stay around,” Kay said of the main factor driving him to run for a seat on the School Committee.

Additionally, with his MBA, Kay decided to run to help the School Committee deal with budget matters. From his perspective, Kay believed that the School Committee “didn’t know what they were doing” and were “a little too passive” when it came to the budget.

Kay says he “felt like the Superintendent was running the show” instead of the elected Committee members, another motivator for Kay’s campaign. 

Referring to a contract signed by the schools two years ago, Kay feels that the School Committee was caught unaware when there should have been ample time to prepare for a budget cut. Although members of the School Committee recently pointed to a smaller increase in state funding (the Chapter 70 program) than anticipated, that impact was about $600,000 – a fraction of Sharon’s school budget shortfall, Kay said. He added that the town finance director also had told the School Committee not to expect a large increase from the state.

Furthermore, Kay notes that while Sharon Schools were rated 12th in Massachusetts in 2021, they are now rated 34th in the state, according to U.S. News and World Report Education Rankings. 

“For me, that’s a red flag that money isn’t being spent properly,” Kay said. 

So, what exactly does Kay want to do? 

As Kay begins his term on the School Committee, already having sat in office for a couple meetings as the year comes to an end, Kay emphasized his approach to the budget: “We need to start as soon as we can.” 

Starting with regular monthly meetings, to keep committee members, faculty, and community members informed about possible cuts and changes, Kay wants to make sure that every dollar is being spent in the best way possible, even if that means cutting positions. 

“If you can get by with a half athletic director, then it is more likely you can get by with a half DEI position.” Kay states of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion administrative position in the district. 

While Kay is not against a DEI position, with only 55 million dollars to spend, he inquires whether it is more important to have a full-time athletic director or have a full time DEI position (having both not likely being an optimal solution at this point in time, he said, given it would mean even more cuts elsewhere). Questions like these are the driving force behind Kay’s desire for more meetings about the budget in the future. 

“I want a subset budget committee that meets regularly,” Kay said. 

At the monthly meetings, Kay suggests that data and statistics need to be taken into account while deciding what needs to stay and what can be cut without drastic consequences: specifically data from both Sharon and the surrounding towns, an approach that is matched when it comes to the calendar. (He added that his “instinct” on the calendar largely is to observe federal and state holidays.) 

For now, Kay looks to switch Sharon School Committee back to in-person meetings as a way to keep the relationship between elected officials and the community as open as possible. Meetings have been held on Zoom only since the pandemic.

Looking to quickly overcome the issues of the calendar, budget, and many others that the School Committee faces, Kay is fighting for a brighter future – a future he wishes to achieve by deliberately focusing on managing the budget, something that lies within his expertise. 

With the last School Committee meeting in the books for the 2023-2024 school year on June 26, it is clear that the next school year will be full of changes, challenges, and curiosities. But, the residents of Sharon have spoken, and, hopefully, all of our voices will continue to be heard through Kay and the other elected members of our Committee.