Physics teach Jeff Cramer remembers Matt Westmoreland as a “serious, conscientious and steady” student. There was one additional factor, however, that Cramer said made Westmoreland stand out even more: his email address.
Cramer explained how it stood for “President of the United States in 2036,” which is the first year Westmoreland is old enough to run for president.
Westmoreland said he’s always been interested in politics, and now he’s getting the chance to live out his dream of helping the community. The 2006 Grady grad and current Carver Early College history teacher recently announced his candidacy for the APS Board of Education position currently held by Grady parent Cecily Harsch-Kinnane, who plans to not run for reelection after this year. The district governs Grady, Crim and all of their feeder schools.
Kristina Weems attended Grady with Westmoreland and participated in Teach For America with him. She remembers how all of his friends were confident in his abilities to fill a leadership role later in life.
“A thing that we always used to talk about in high school with Matt was that he was going to be president of the United States,” Weems said. “It wasn’t like this childhood dream, or this far-fetched idea, everybody was like ‘No, Matt … you’re gonna be in a leadership position, you’re gonna be in politics.’”
After graduating, Westmoreland attended Princeton University, where he majored in history. While at Princeton, he was the editor of the Daily Princetonian, a student-run newspaper with a 150-person staff and a half-a-million-dollar budget. That is when his interest for public education took off and he got involved in Teach for America.
“I had heard about Teach for America from an old Grady teacher. I knew after college I wanted to come back to Atlanta and I knew I wanted to be involved in education and Teach for America kind of fit that bill perfectly,” Westmoreland said.
Teach for America trains prospective teachers and helps them get employed at a public school. In 2010, Teach for America helped Westmoreland land a job as a history teacher at Carver. Westmoreland said he enjoys being a public school teacher.
“Teaching is all sorts of emotions thrown into one,” he said. “It’s so much fun to work with kids every day and to know that it’s your job to try and get them excited about something that they might not be excited about.”
Westmoreland said his time at Grady and Carver is what inspired him to run for board.
“I started to see that Grady itself had some pretty significant divides within the student population and I saw those divides extend to other schools around the system and also just all across the city,” Westmoreland said. “I’ve seen that during my time at Carver too.”
Cramer also believes Westmoreland’s APS experience can help him in his campaign.
“I think Grady is a place where he has seen how a community working together can support the educational structure,” Cramer said. “It has been better for him to teach [at Carver] in that he understands now, probably a lot better, what the real needs are of students.”
Westmoreland’s plan to improve the district involves fixing three main issues. The first issue Westmoreland wants to focus on is APS’s handling of teachers.
“Putting an effective principal and an effective teacher in every classroom is the most important thing we can do to ensure student success,” he said. “We need to rethink the way that we recruit teachers, we need to rethink the way we train teachers continuously, and we need to look at the way that we keep teachers.”
The next issue is early childhood education. Westmoreland believes the earlier APS students can begin their education, the better.
“Every piece of research suggests that the earlier you can engage children in meaningful learning, the deeper and more solid their foundation is for school and later in life,” he said.
The final issue Westmoreland would focus on as a Board member is increasing the direct contact between him and community members. Westmoreland said that right now, many people feel like their voice is not heard, and he wants to make himself the most accessible board member. Anyone who wants his email address can have it, Westmoreland said, who changed his potus36 email after high school.
Weems thinks these are three very important issues that could make a big difference in the school system.
“[Matt] being the intuitive person that he is, I think those three things are just excellent choices to focus on,” she said. “Those are three things that we most definitely need in the education system right now.”
Cramer believes if Westmoreland is elected on Nov. 5, being a member of the board will be harder than expected. He and Weems both think that Westmoreland will need to work hard to find a middle ground with his fellow board members.
“In politics you really have to learn how to give and take, how to compromise, and especially compromise with people you don’t agree with,” Cramer said.
Cramer added that because Westmoreland is so young, he’s setting himself up for a lot of criticism. He is curious to see how Westmoreland handles it.
Harsch-Kinnane, who also had to deal with criticism during her terms on the board, feels confident in Westmoreland’s ability to help the district (as a board member?).
“I admire Matt greatly. I think he’s a remarkable young man,” she said. “If he ends up doing it, I think he’ll do an excellent job.”
Westmoreland has similar feelings about Harsch-Kinnane, and stays enthusiastic about running to take her place.
“Cecily has worked really hard, and I know that I will have to work just as hard and harder, but I’m ready for that challenge because the kids in our schools are worth it,” he said. “Making sure they get a quality education is the most important thing that we can be doing as a city, and I am ready to commit whatever time and energy necessary to making that a reality.”
