>> School Committee: Shawn Kinney

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website: www.ShawnKinney.com

Town Service:

Professional Career:

1999-present, CEO and Founder, Hyaluron, Inc., a 100 person pharmaceutical manufacturing company
1996-1999, Vice President Operations, Anika Therapeutics, a medical device company
Prior to 1996, positions of increasing responsibilities with Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Companies

Educational Background:

University of Massachusetts, PhD, Chemistry
Northeastern University, Master of Science, Medicinal Chemistry
Southeastern Massachusetts University, Bachelor of Science, Chemistry

Candidate Statement:

My name is Shawn Kinney and I am running for the Wayland School Committee. My wife, Andrea, and I have lived in Wayland for 15 years. We are the parents of three children, Sarah in the 7th grade, Hannah in the 9th grade and Steven, a 2006 graduate of Wayland High School who will graduate from West Point next month with high honors as an officer.

My education includes a doctorate degree in Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. I am the CEO and founder of a 100 employee company, Hyaluron, providing manufacturing services to the pharmaceutical industry.

I believe the quality of education in Wayland is world class. We should be very proud of our schools’ performance. But as with any organization, we cannot simply rest on our laurels. We must continually strive to do better and achieve more. There are many challenges our schools face today but the largest challenge Wayland faces by far is the same problem confronting many other school systems in this country…. how to maintain excellence in public education for our children while maintaining a budget that allows all of our residents to live within their means.

Wayland does not have a significant commercial tax base, almost all revenues come from the homeowners. With increasing costs, decreasing state aid and a debt exclusion override to fund the building of a new high school, the tax burden on our homeowners will become even more significant in the coming years. I believe we must not lessen the quality of education in Wayland but we must strive to become more efficient with the present revenue provided by our residents.

The Wayland Public School budget is approximately $30 million dollars. This is the equivalent budget of a mid-sized company in corporate America. If we are able to reduce costs through greater efficiency, especially when considering positions such as payroll, maintenance and other redundant administrative functions in our schools… functions not directly related to education that may be consolidated with town-side government… the need for operational overrides or more teacher cuts will be avoided.

I believe our schools need the expertise of someone who has experience in managing budgets and running an organization. I have acquired this practical fiscal experience running my own company. I have balanced budgets and I have had to ensure that my company’s dollars were efficiently spent to preserve staff while navigating my company through the worst financial environment since the Great Depression. I am confident that I possess the experience needed to help our schools through these challenging times.
I thank you for your consideration and ask for your vote on May 11.