School Committee candidate Sabrina Shams DeJoannis

Sabrina Shams DeJoannis said she immediately felt welcome when she moved to Waltham in 2015.

“I don’t look like most of my neighbors in the Highlands, but I have never felt any different,” said DeJoannis, who is originally from Bangladesh. “I’ve been welcomed with open arms.”

Her family’s next-door neighbors, she said, are like grandparents to her kids. The neighborhood even knows her cat.

It was the welcoming nature she said she felt immediately that led her to become active in different groups across the city. She has been involved at the Waltham Boys & Girls Club, Waltham Mutual Aid, the Waltham Cultural Council and the Community Day Center. She has volunteered more than 200 hours at the city’s Dual Language School kindergarten library classes, serving as president of the DLS Parent-Teacher Organization from 2022 to 2023. She has been treasurer of the Friends of the Public Library since 2024.

“I find myself in different circles in Waltham,” she said.

DeJoannis said because she didn’t go to school here, she began watching the School Committee’s meetings four years ago when her daughter started first grade at the Dual Language School during the COVID-19 pandemic hybrid schooling year. She said she hasn’t stopped watching since then.

Once DLS opened again to in-person volunteers, DeJoannis said her time in the school’s kindergarten library was her inspiration to run for a committee spot.

“I’ve seen the joy of when something clicks with the students and they have that ‘a-ha’ moment,” she said, “and I’ve also seen the challenges that our educators and staff have, given the diversity of the population and the range of school readiness we have in our students.”

As a member of the district equity team’s first committee, DeJoannis said she experienced firsthand the value and support of the team’s work.

DeJoannis called the findings of the district’s initial equity audit “sobering,” but said she believes the team is gathering valuable data.

“I have full faith that they’re going to move us in the right direction,” DeJoannis said.

If elected, she said she plans to collaborate with the equity team by asking questions and visualizing the direction of its second phase of work.

She also called out areas that need improvement.

For example, she said the district needs more continuity in staff, administration and curriculum; DeJoannis said her daughter has had four different math curricula and seven gym teachers in six years. Stable leadership, she said, allows districts to sustain good programs, student opportunities and maintain consistent curriculum across all grade levels.

She also said there needs to be more support and special programming.

“There are lots of middle school parents who have been dissatisfied because there is no project-based learning, no Changemaker Program and there is no intervention for students who need to be pushed further,” DeJoannis said. “That is something that I think is a by-product of us not having stability in policies and curriculum.”

DeJoannis said improving student attitudes around state testing would translate to improvement in the district’s scores. 

While testing is no longer a graduation requirement, it is up to parents, teachers and administrators to still communicate its value to students, she said.

DeJoannis also commented on improving equity in resources. On the state level, DeJoannis said per-enrollment allocation of resources like administrators harms specialized schools. Specialized schools like DLS may have lower enrollment, she said, but it is necessary to provide resources based on need, not uniformity.

“It is a disservice and it can impact the equity in that school,” DeJoannis said, “because regardless of the number of students the school has, it is still a full-fledged school.”

DeJoannis, who had served as the DLS PTO president, said running for School Committee is a way to bring her ideas and experience to the district level and make sure the city lives up to its potential.

“Waltham has a lot of great resources and sometimes I think we talk over each other and don’t collaborate effectively to leverage those resources,” DeJoannis said.

DeJoannis is one of four candidates running for three open seats.