Anne Grassie

"Hello, my name is Anne Grassie, and I’m running for atlarge school board for the city of Rochester.

I have served on the school board a couple of times previously. very proud of the accomplishments we made when I was on the board. one that brings to my mind is the kindergarten, voting for kindergarten so that our our 5-year-olds can have a good start in our educational system. the other one was the Maple School, the Maple Magnet School. I was on the board when we approved that and that has proved to be a a boon. The the Maple kids do very well with their extra 20 days of school, and I think that shows us what our schools should be doing.

we need to collaborate with the city. We need to collaborate with the state. We need to collaborate with the federal government. In my professional life, I work for Rochester Childare Center and we’re a nonprofit, and we constantly have to look for funding and resources to do the programs we want to do. I think the school board is going to be in that situation in the next two to four years. the funding from the state is shrinking and our our costs are rising. So we need to solve that for our students. We need to we need to provide an education to to our students so that they can approach the work world ready to go whatever that is. if they want to go to college, if they want to go to a trade school, if they want to join the military, if they want to go into the workforce, we need to prepare them to be ready on day one for those things.

And as my background is in early childhood, I know the development of our first five years is very important and our first three grades are extremely important. If we don’t create readers by third grade, we struggle the rest of their school system. So that’s my goal is to focus on our early years, get the reading going.

we also need to take care of our families. one issue that’s across the state, a lot other states have provided free lunch, free breakfast, free lunch, free meals for kids because if kids are hungry, they can’t learn. And we’ve seen an uptick in hungry kids in this city. The Rochester Childcare Center for the first time in 50 years created a food pantry and it is doubling. It is doubling in size. Every week we have more families showing up with needs. we need to attend to the to the basic needs of our students before we can expect them to be able to learn to read.

And that’s that’s a vital vital point of view that I will be bringing to the school board is what is good for kids. That’s my main driving force. It has been for a long time. As a lot of you know, I’ve worked in early childhood education since my children were very little. And we’ve had five children in the city go through the Rochester school system and are doing very well. We’ve had we have 18 grandchildren. Some of them are in the Rochester school system."

Notes:

The Public Information and Community Engagement Office for the City of Rochester is pleased to announce that the Meet the Candidates video series is now available for viewing ahead of the upcoming Municipal Election.

The nonpartisan series introduces voters to candidates for Mayor, City Council, School Board, and Police Commission. Each candidate was given up to three minutes to speak directly to voters, share their priorities, and present their personal message.

To ensure fairness and transparency, all videos were recorded live in a single take, without edits, hosts, or predetermined questions.

The views and opinions expressed in the following video are those of the candidate and do not necessarily reflect the views of the City of Rochester, its elected officials or staff. The content is presented as part of a public information effort to provide equal opportunity for all candidates to address the community.

Transcript was taken directly from the GovTV website closed captioning. AI added bold/italic fonts for emphasis and separated paragraphs where appropriate.

Information About Anne Grassie

• Currently the Ward 4 Seat B School Board Representative (She is running for At-Large School Board Rep in this upcoming election)

• Former Representative, NH House of Representatives (1994 - 2014) 

• Assistant Director, Rochester Day Care Center 

View the Candidate's Responses in the 2023 Foster's Candidate Survey by Clicking Here!

Resources to Learn More About Anne Grassie

Candidate's LinkedIn Profile