Letter to the Editor: Regarding Kelly Horton, Candidate for School Committee

~ Submitted by Joe Piantedosi

I enthusiastically support Kelly Horton for School Committee

Kelly’s skills and experience will enable her to successfully navigate the many complex topics, discussions, and decisions that are likely to come before the school committee in the coming years. As a former elected Bedford official, I understand what is needed to get the job done, and Kelly has it!

Kelly currently holds a director-level position at Biogen overseeing operational effectiveness for the US commercial organization. In this role, Kelly is responsible for identifying inefficiencies and areas of improvement and then implementing solutions to improve overall effectiveness. Kelly is successful because she is a seasoned collaborator, gets up to speed quickly even when it is not her area of expertise, is able to see and communicate what needs to be done, and then drives for results. These are qualities that would undoubtedly benefit the school committee and the entire school community.

Perhaps more importantly, Kelly is the mom to three sons ages 4, 7, and 10. This enables her to bring a fresh, informed, and critical perspective to the school committee for many years to come. She’ll have insight into three of our four schools at any given time during her expected term, a priceless asset in and of itself, particularly when the current school committee lacks members with young children.

Earlier in the pandemic, Kelly advocated to safely return children to classrooms fulltime and founded the group Bring Bedford Back Safely, which was comprised of hundreds of parents that respectfully requested a plan be developed to safely return children to school. Through that advocacy, she gained valuable insight about the role and importance of the school committee, which led to her desire to run.

Kelly’s commitment to the children of Bedford is unwavering. Her leadership capabilities combined with her drive to do what’s right make her the ideal candidate. Put simply, there will be no better advocate for our children than Kelly Horton.