Tell us a little about yourself. You can include your personal background, family, outside interests that are important to who you are as a person and a candidate.
My name is Andrew Harris, and I am an educator who makes and uses games to facilitate social emotional growth. I am the founder and president of the Lyndhurst Education and Advocacy Foundation, a nonprofit focused on the intersection of games, education and neurodiversity, and have a small educational private practice in the town center.
I have lived in Lexington for about 10 years, and grew up not far from here. Like the young people I work with, I am neurodivergent–I’m a big picture thinker, prone to out-of-the-box ideas, highly collaborative, and focused on my passions. I am a parent to an elementary schooler and husband to an art teacher at Lexington High School. I have become increasingly interested in the town’s education system since my daughter began kindergarten. I served for three years as president of Estabrook’s PTO and continue to volunteer my time on its board.
Why are you running for Town Meeting?
I am running for Town Meeting because I want to bridge the divide that I fear is growing in our town. When contentious topics have arisen in recent years, I feel like many are left feeling unheard. I want to improve how we communicate with one another and understand one another’s perspectives. Even if my initial stance on a topic is very different from yours, I want to fully understand your perspective and help you fully understand mine. I believe there is more room for compromise in our town’s politics, and that we are missing some perspectives because we struggle to listen and sit with disagreement. These are the kinds of conversations into which I lean.
How has your past experience — whether in your professional life, elected office, or as a community leader — prepared you for a role in Town Meeting?
The biggest strength that I would bring to this role is my ability to facilitate conversation, listen with empathy, and find solutions that address varied concerns. I have developed these abilities through my work as an educator, in both public schools and private practice. My work with neurodiverse peers and clients has also fostered my ability to effectively communicate, collaborate, and understand varied perspectives.
I clearly recall when debate picked up about the Serious Talks curriculum in recent years – this was when my interest in town politics crystallized. I spoke during the school committee meeting and actively engaged in advocacy. At the same time, I listened and tried to understand where the opposition to the curriculum came from. I invited people who were vocally opposed to join me for coffee at my office in town. I quickly came to understand there was no hatred or vitriol–these were people who cared deeply for their children. In many cases, when I heard their concerns, the remedy was simply to engage in discussion. As they learned more about gender identity, and how it was being discussed at school, many of their fears were allayed. Even when our stances remained far apart on a topic, the experience of discussing the topic in good faith and seeking common ground benefited all of us.
What is the most important issue in this election to you personally, and what ideas do you have about how to address this issue?
My passion and expertise will most often lead my focus to topics related to education, inclusion, accessibility and diversity, but these are not the most important issues to me. I am most interested in topics where I feel the town ended up divided and talking past each other. After attending many candidate forums for school committee in recent years, I have seen that there is a notable portion of our town that feels unheard. This happened during Serious Talks, then again as the new high school was being debated and discussed. I hope to act as a moderating force in discussions like these, helping both sides hear the other’s concerns and bringing the best ideas to the table.
As a write-in candidate, I hope that you will support my goal of serving as a process-focused, collaborative, pragmatic bridge that will help more voices be heard and more perspectives be understood. Please write in Andrew Harris for Precinct 7 to support my campaign.