Below is Intoppa’s 2023 Campaign Kickoff Speech, given at the American Legion (October 8, 2023)
Welcome everyone to the newly renovated American Legion Post 45! Isn’t this beautiful. I wanted to take a second and thank them for welcoming us today as our hosts, and for Maury Carroll who cooked us all this delicious food, so thank you to you both right off the bat
Before I start, I just wanted to take a moment and acknowledge some of the guests we have here today.
(Special guests in attendance: Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn (Candidate for Reelection), Nicole Branley (Candidate for Medford SC), Patrick Clerkin (Candidate for Medford CC), Councilor Justin Tseng (Candidate for Reelection), Councilor Rick Caraviello (Candidate for Mayor), Melanie Tringali (Candidate for Medford CC), and Len Glionna (Candidate for Medford CC).
So where was I.. Oh yes.
Hello all, my name is John Louis Intoppa, and I am here to formally announce my bid to sit on the Medford School Committee. This announcement comes a little over 4 years after the first announcement at our first kickoff. Four years ago I stood before you as a newly graduated member of our public school system. Today, I stand before you as a newly graduated member of the state’s public school system with my Bachelors.
I invited Howie today to introduce me for a very specific reason. Howie - was one of the first administrators I met when I began at MassArt. Howie’s kindness and welcoming behavior towards me as a student is what broke down the barrier to begin working within the inner channels of the institution. It is that very phenomena that I wish to bring to our public school system for our students. If we truly want to create a culture and system in which our students feel motivated and want to go to school - we need to start by creating an environment on the school committee that welcomes them to voice their opinion. Elected officials sit behind that wooden barrier - but there should not be a mental barrier that allows the future of this world to give their two cents on how we can better develop it for them to grow and learn. It’s Howie’s experience that I look up to, and use as inspiration to lead.
Let’s talk about experience, shall we?
When I didn’t get a seat on the School Committee four years ago - a majority of people’s complaints were that I didn’t have enough experience yet, and that I was just a kid.
So I took that to the chin and kept looking where I could make change and get that experience. So in January of 2020, I said. Well. I can’t get a job with the city - so why don’t I try and get one with the State. In February I won an election to become a member of the Board of Trustees at MassArt elected by my peers. I served two terms and served on various planning and search committees - as well as worked to bring the institution back from the pandemic when Covid hit less than a month into my first term. We brought in a new president, and the decision was made to better strengthen the new administration with the students by having me leave the Board and become the Student Body President. I served another two terms as president, and in doing so helped bring back and elevate student engagement at the university. I was a voice for every student that attended that campus virtually and in person. I spent hours of my time between classes in meetings with faculty, staff, and administrators alike strategizing how we can better serve students. I helped rewrite the entire Constitution and ByLaws that the Student Government Association swears by - introducing new budgetorial and electoral procedures it never had before. I was awarded the Emerging Leader Award in 2020, Leader of the Year Award in 2022, Continuous Service Award in 2023, as well as nominated for numerous others throughout my years there. I also served as the Open Educational Resource Ambassador for the university, the Director of the annual All School Show, and as a Resident Advisor overseeing first years to seniors and being their first point of contact for all things residence life and personal life. I saw the forefront of how badly the mental health crisis in the Commonwealth is becoming. I was there with individuals during the worst moments of their life and it only further cemented how dire we need to start early and effectively with preventative mental health care resources in our Medford Public Schools.
Effective coping mechanisms, programs to bring students back to campus once they have recovered if the situation gets that bad, and means of seeking guidance all before the issue gets bad enough to have to look for resources in the moment. The arts is a key component to this as well. It helps with expression, as well as helps continue on culture and create different thinking patterns for individuals. It unlocks key components of the mind to also help them retain information greater. Not only are these important for student well being, but so is social responsibility - which is so key to this campaign it’s on every lawn sign we have put out. It comes from my time in our very own Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility or CCSR. The CCSR is an amazing program that has quickly grown to be inhabited in all of our schools - and yet receives funding solely from outside grants like the Cummings Foundation. We need to better integrate them into our schools to help boost morale and create a better future for those who will be inhabiting it. Students are doing self directed projects within their special interests to better the community and we need to do our part. All of these pieces to the platform key into themselves and sustain one another. They are not only helping themselves, but our community thrives.
Not only do we need to make a safe learning environment for our students that makes them feel wanted, we need to be also making sure we are fostering a safe working environment for our staff and also making them feel wanted as well.
To recap, I didn’t lose an election four years ago, I won a great opportunity to gain much needed experience within the education system. As George Thurrott told me time and time again at Modern Hardware, you can’t teach experience. I believe that between my experience in the public education system from K-BFA - as well as the conversations and items on the platform, that I will be able to help guide our public schools system, into a more student involved and student centric version. We must give them a seat at the table, and actually have their vote and opinions matter in selecting new protocols, staffing, and systems we put into place. So please, it would be an honor to have one of your six votes for the Medford School Committee this election cycle. Thank you.
Below is Howie LaRosee’s 2023 Campaign Kickoff Introductory Speech
Good morning,
I am really glad to be here today to talk about the time I have spent with John. We worked together at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, John was the Student Trustee and subsequently became the Student Government Association President, as well as a full time student. I (was, now retired) the Associate Vice President of Facilities and Planning. Students at Massart are subject to a very heavy workload, despite this, John’s devotion to service kicked in during his first year at Massart and he ran for and won the office of Student Trustee. This position has the same power and authority as the other trustees on the board who are appointed by the Governor. John started strong as the student’s representative to the board of trustees. He picked his major in Industrial design, a very rigorous and well know department. As time went on John decided to run for student government president, which he won. In my position, I typically worked with the student trustee or SGA president when situations arose and I thought their involvement would be beneficial to the college. John had a better idea. John set up weekly meetings to manage any student issues quickly. We met every week for almost 2 years. We worked on quality of life issues such as living conditions in the residence halls and dealing with a new food service vendor. John was a champion for our students with food insecurity or food allergies.
We were able to educate a global multi billion dollar corporation on how to handle these issues in an appropriate and friendly manner on our campus. John was all in with everything we worked on. He would text or relay important information in real time, which means he would contact me at 3 am if needed because one of his students was in distress. John and I were chosen to be members of the presidential search committee. John represented the student body, I represented the administration. This committee required many meetings, some at night or weekends. More hours of work on an already heavy workload. We worked tirelessly through the many candidates and unanimously chose our current president. One of the major issue John encountered was an outdated Student Government constitution. In his final, and busiest academic year, he worked with his student government representatives and the colleges’ student development department to successfully change and update the constitution. John and I have become good friends and colleagues. He is the type of person who puts others first and works hard to make sure that the right thing gets done in the correct manner. John is well versed in every aspect of a students’ needs, from the pedagogical viewpoint, to facilities, housing and food services, he has covered a lot of ground. I can think of no other person who would better serve the well-being of any student body, anywhere. I am now pleased to introduce
Mr. John Intoppa.