I had the great opportunity to respond to some questions from the Sutton High School Newspaper – my responses to their questions are below:

What is your name, how long have you lived in Sutton, and how many children do you have in or have had in the Sutton Public Schools (how long were they there)?

My name is Christopher Matera, and I’ve lived in Sutton since 2012. We moved to Sutton to be closer to family and because of the amazing school system. My wife and I have three children with two in the Sutton School System (High School Freshman, and 8th grade Middle School), the third is in pre-kindergarten. I’ve had the great privilege of serving on the Zoning Board of Appeals since 2018 and on the School Committee for a year.

I love my service on these boards because it gives me a direct role in helping the town grow and develop, working with citizens and the board to gain consensus and coming to the right decision. It’s an honor to be on a town board and serve on the front lines in a decision-making body helping do things that matter.

What is the most crucial issue facing public education?

I mentioned this last year, but one of the most critical issues facing public education is on the question of college or career readiness. When assessments like the National Assessment of Educational Progress show 8^th grade science scores falling by 4 points since 2019, and 12^th grade reading and math scores falling by 3 points during the same period; or when schools like Harvard are offering remedial mathematics courses – we have a problem.

The mission of the public schools, fundamentally, is about creating an environment where everyone can learn, thrive and succeed – and by succeed that means both on a college track and into the workforce if that’s what students choose. So, what does success look like?

It looks like students who are exceeding the state average for reading, science, and math. The state baseline for these, at least on MCAS, is under 50%. In a small district like ours, we should be well above benchmark. I suggested that teaching and learning be a standing agenda item for the school committee, because if we don’t talk about it, we can’t improve it!

How can we properly fund education without dramatically raising taxes?

Communities in Massachusetts get revenue back from the state mainly through Chapter 70 Funding and Unrestricted General Government Aid (UGGA). UGGA primarily is used for police, fire, and roads and Chapter 70 mainly funds the schools.

The town is incredibly generous in funding our schools – in FY26 at approximately $4 million above the required net school spending, and 4% more in FY27. These numbers are just the allocation to the school and do not include health insurance and other benefits that the town covers for school employees.

On the state side Chapter 70 funding has not kept pace with inflation. The Chapter 70 formula does adjust for inflation; however, it is capped at 4.5% – actual inflation has been ~7% in FY23, ~8% in FY24, around 3-4% in FY25. As the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center put it:

“Price levels did not drop substantially after this high inflation period, nor did the issue get corrected. Therefore, the current formula is permanently reducing the ongoing value of the SOA reforms relative to costs incurred by Massachusetts schools.”

While there are efforts to fix Chapter 70 none of these efforts will help in the next fiscal year.

On the bright side, in the latest house budget, we look to be at around $160 per-pupil which helps us and, in addition, there are some bills stuck in the legislature, particularly S.388 to fix the Chapter 70 inflation issue.

Ultimately though real issue is an inadequate return of local aid dollars from Beacon Hill.

So, the question isn’t “how can we properly fund education without dramatically raising taxes?” – we are funding education, to the tune $23 million dollars annually. As a town that contributes more to the state than we get back in aid – the question is really “How can we get more of our state aid back to fund things like education?”

What do you want to see happen in Sutton Public Schools over the next three years?

I look forward to seeing improvements to our ELA and Math Scores at the K-5 levels. I’m very pleased the district invested in a new K-5 ELA curriculum and I think this will pay dividends helping us identify kids who might need extra intervention.

For the Middle School, I again want to see an action plan with milestones that can get our MCAS scores above the state baseline. We shouldn’t accept that we are “on par” with the state. In a district like ours we should be exceeding it. The School Committee should be laser focused on education and advocating for consistent teaching and learning updates at our meetings e.g.: a standing agenda item. If the school committee is to fund curriculum, we need to be hearing about the progress and any gaps our educators are finding.

I mentioned this last year but for the High School we should investigate and potentially partner with the University of Massachusetts System or other schools to offer dual enrollment pathways. In the UMass System’s case, the Early College program allows High School students to take classes at a partner UMass School and earn both high school and college credit. As an early college program, it also helps smooth the transition of students from high school to college. Because the cost of a college education can be so hard to manage, I think it would benefit our students to really partner with as many colleges as we can to offer dual enrollment pathways. This would save money for our families, allow us to expand our offering of classes where we have gaps, and give kids a leg up if they choose a college pathway.

For the district in general, I’d love to see an interactive budget dashboard and a five-year budget projection based on enrollment trends and an average of state aid dollars. We do some of this now, but we need to be more strategic, considering things like our enrollment and Chapter 70/state/town appropriations. The taxpayers should have access to this data interactively any time they want. This transparency will bring the budget to the forefront vs a once-a-year discussion.

How much input should parents have in classroom curriculum, and what should happen when state requirements conflict with parental concerns?

Ultimately no policy, administrator or state agency has more rights than a parent and their children – the school committee should be a fierce advocate for parents’ rights. As many studies show, parental involvement is critical to a child’s success in school and so when parents are engaged and involved kids thrive and succeed. Parents have every right to know what and how their kids are being taught within the classroom. We entrust our kids to the schools and trust that the adults are handling their education appropriately. The school committee can play a critical role creating policies and bridging the gap between parents and administration along these lines, but when a controversial subject is being taught the school should follow its stated policy (policy IMB) – and if a parent disagrees with or has a question about the content or lesson being taught, they have every right to contact the school and opt their child out.

What made you decide to seek election?

I’m running for reelection because we have built great momentum this year on the committee and I want to continue the work that I’ve started on the school committee – here are a few highlights:

1. Advocated to put teaching/learning/curriculum as a frequent agenda topic so the committee and the public can better understand how / what we’re doing as a district.
2. Worked on the contract negotiation team with both teachers and administration to create a new 3-year contract which both rewards teachers and sets the district on a better financial footing long term.
3. Advocated for better budgeting with more realistic projections of Chapter 70 allocation so that we can better manage our resources.

We need to keep this forward progress going as we move into Fiscal Year 2027 and keep this commonsense approach on the school committee.

What are your primary credentials that make you an excellent candidate?

I’m a taxpayer, a parent, and a concerned citizen who’s passionate about making sure education works for every child in Sutton.

I’ve worked in higher education IT for 20+ years, primarily leading projects that optimize resistant-to-change processes like Admissions and Financial Aid — the kind of entrenched systems where asking, ‘why do we do it this way?’ is the most powerful tool you have.

In my IT work I have led teams involved in consolidating procurement and optimizing spend across a large multi-campus university system standing up workflow solutions and business processes that make things more efficient.

I’ve worked across the spectrum meeting with people from CIOs to Vice Chancellors to file room clerks bringing all these groups together to problem solve. Importantly, I do not settle for the status quo. Asking why has the effect of forcing people to explain their beliefs and why things are done the way they are – and when you do that, real change can happen. 

If elected, how will you work to find common ground with your fellow school committee members?

It’s important to listen to people and understand their perspectives especially when they’re different. I think we’ve done this quite well this year in the school committee. If you’ve watched our meetings, you’ve seen disagreements and different perspectives being brought forth – but at the end we find common ground – in fact most of our decisions are 5-0. Why? Because at the end of the day we come together and form a consensus; people exchange their ideas and viewpoints – but we find common ground.

Homogeneous thinking is dangerous and we need to create an environment; especially on the school committee where different viewpoints can thrive and the best ideas emerge! That’s the kind of committee Sutton deserves, and it’s the environment I’ll keep working to build.

What specific message would you like to share with the voters?

We’ve done a good job on the School Committee this year. I’ve been a fierce advocate for bringing curriculum and outcome-based data to the forefront. We’ve dug into test scores and enrollment information and formed an enrollment workgroup to understand demographic trends that will help us forecast our needs going forward. In a tough budget year, we have made decisions that help put the district on better financial footing like early retirement incentives and working on a five-year budget projection to help manage our budget within the town.

We need to keep moving forward as a committee and having the thoughtful and challenging conversations necessary to advance our schools in a financially responsible manner that balances both the needs of the school with the needs of the town.

As we look at FY27 we need a candidate that can work with our state delegation to advocate for more state aid. I’m the only candidate endorsed by both State Senator Ryan Fattman and State Representative Joe McKenna, that matters. I’m asking for your vote to help keep our committee moving forward.