School Committee candidate Liz AlJammal

Liz AlJammal has been a presence in the Waltham Public Schools for nearly two decades.

She has held numerous volunteer roles in the district for 18 years, serving as a member of multiple parent-teacher organizations, school site councils, search committees to assist in the hiring process, working groups and the Special Education Parent Advisory Council. She also helped with the creation of Waltham Valor High School. 

AlJammal has served as a member of the Waltham School Committee since 2019 and said that while it means being ready to take a phone call or respond to an email at any time, she wanted to get involved at the district level.

AlJammal, a 25-year resident of Waltham, said the city’s diversity is what she values most about living and raising her two daughters here.

“My kids are exposed to people from so many different countries and so many different languages,” she said. “That’s a huge bonus of living here.”

Having once been an English-language learner student herself, AlJammal said ensuring that equitable education exists in the city has motivated her from the start.

“Learning about our EL students, I could understand where they were coming from,” she said. “Making sure that those students had what they needed to succeed like I did is what pushed me to run for School Committee.”

AlJammal, the district equity team’s school committee representative, prioritizes equity in school policy, pointing out that there is a difference between equity and equality. 

“That may mean that one school gets something different than another school because their needs are different than the other school’s needs,” AlJammal said.

While the School Committee is limited to policy and budget, she said recommendations from the district’s equity team can help guide committee members as they decide how to allocate resources.

Speaking to voter concerns about the transparency of city government, AlJammal said that although recordings of the committee’s meetings are available online, there is room to improve.

With support from an increasing budget to increase multilingual resources throughout the district, translating meetings would make them more accessible to families. 

AlJammal used to hold office hours with fellow committee member John Frassica at the beginning of her first term in an effort to open conversation, but the pair received little interest from the community.

Getting people involved is tough, according to AlJammal.

“No one would show up, so we stopped doing those,” she said, “It’s interesting how people don’t pay much attention unless there’s a hot topic.”

AlJammal said she will continue to make improving student performance a priority for the School Committee and support Superintendent Marisa Mendonsa, hired in July 2024, in making it a top priority for her second year in the role. 

WHS ranked in the 9th percentile for student performance according to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s 2025 Official Accountability Report. 

DESE classified the school as requiring assistance or intervention according to the report’s findings.

AlJammal said the School Committee is in contract negotiations with the Waltham Educators Association and while she can’t comment directly on improving test scores, work is being done.

AlJammal stressed the need to tackle learning gaps in the earlier grade levels to ensure students’ academic success. 

“We really need to look at what’s going on at the middle school and at the elementary level,” she said. “We need to identify where we have gaps going all the way up so that when the kids get to the high school they’re ready to take on what they need to get there.”

When AlJammal first ran for School Committee, the committee was exploring the need for an alternative high school to support students who would be better supported by a non-traditional learning model.

Today, she said, having the Waltham Valor High School is a huge success, but the work shouldn’t stop there.

“It was desperately needed and seeing that come to fruition was just fantastic, but there’s still so much that needs to be done,” AlJammal said.

AlJammal said she will continue to support the work at Valor, as well as monitor its success and need for expansion.

Another four-year term and continued collaboration with Mendonsa, she said, would allow her to keep momentum going. 

“I want to be able to support her and the work that needs to be done,” AlJammal said.