As the current Vice Chair of the LPS School Committee, Deepika Sawhney has sought to bring her unique lens to addressing school issues. Working for over six years alongside Kathleen Lenihan, one of the two other candidates, Sawnhey impresses that “what you’re going to hear from me may be very different from what you’re going to hear from Kathleen, but that doesn’t mean that either of them are not important.”
A parent of two LHS graduates, Sawnhey sees a large part of the School Committee’s purpose as “ameliorating parents’ worry, especially if they’re very new or English is not their first language.”
“That is one thing we do; we worry all the time,” she says. She reflected on the experience her own family had as LPS newcomers and her concerns about her son being at risk of bullying.
“Being Sikh, we have certain articles of faith, and one of the most noticeable is long hair, which in a boy becomes even more noticeable,” she recalled. Sawhney volunteered as a room parent, and from there moved on to multiple roles within LPS, including President of the PTO at Fiske Elementary and STEAM initiatives at Diamond Middle School and LHS, hoping to bring a different perspective. “I thought, let me see how I can help educate the kids, families, teachers, and staff about why this child has long hair and what it means. And show up and do the work.”
Sitting on five of the eight School Committee Subcommittees, Sawhney aims to stay informed, seeking community input wherever possible. She highlighted “My Truth Is …,” a writing competition she organized for Grades 3-12, as one unexpected source. She saw the personal essays as a “Lexington Public Schools report card, because it showed what children experienced.”
One of her biggest concerns right now is the current 4th to 8th-grade cohorts, who were the youngest students to learn remotely during the pandemic.
“These kids need a little bit of extra support,” she says. “That doesn’t mean that we are ignoring the others,” she adds. “So we monitor. We also support the superintendent and the staff when they tell us that we need to do course corrections, because ultimately they provide the education. They know the kids best, apart from the parents and the caregivers.”
Sawhney is drafting a new initiative with the working title of Digital Safety Policy, which she describes as focusing on “children using devices in school and what goes on on school-provided devices.” This local effort comes on the heels of the statewide awareness Governor Healy brought to the issue of technology accessibility by establishing a new Digital Accessibility and Equity Governance Board for Massachusetts in 2023.
“We have to work within our purview. And to keep our children safe, just like everything else, we will have to collaborate with parents and caregivers, because they are our first eyes on the child. But we have to provide them with the tools and help them become more aware of such issues.”
With a Masters in Information Systems, Sawney believes Lexington, and Massachusetts as a whole, is already behind in offering guidelines for teachers and guardrails for students in the digital world. This extends to social media, cell phone use, and AI, especially in how they could be misused by those who might target minors.
Sawhney is keen to offer solutions but also wants to “bring joy into learning, and that is the sort of overarching goal!” She is eager for LPS to get involved in the planning and celebrations for the Semiquincentennial to mark the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Lexington. Because “what’s more fun than figuring out a party!”
Learn more at https://www.sawhneyforlexington.com/
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