Three Candidates Debate Arlington School Committee Seat Ahead of March 28 Vote

ARLINGTON — March 13, 2026 — Three candidates debated Arlington's open one-year School Committee seat Friday in the only televised forum of the 2026 election cycle, with voters deciding March 28. Moderator James Millan of ACMI guided Dmitry Vasiliev, Crystal Haynes-Coppathorn, and Sean Berry through questions on curriculum, equity, and what cuts the district should make if the $15 million Proposition 2½ override on the same ballot fails. Haynes-Coppathorn, who noted the Arlington School Committee has never seated a person of color, said she could accept closing the Fox Library branch but not reducing teachers; Berry said he could accept closing an elementary school if student-to-teacher ratios and multilingual learner positions were preserved; Vasiliev declined any specific cut and called for student surveys to guide decisions. Berry, a former math instructional coach in Cambridge, cited discipline data showing Black and Latino students receive in-school suspensions roughly 14 times more often than white peers. Vasiliev repeatedly criticized the district's Investigations math curriculum as counterintuitive and poorly rated by the state, saying two of his three children left APS for private school over academic concerns.