Dmitry Vasilyev:
A Voice for Children

Candidate for Arlington School Committee

Please vote March 28, 2026

Have you ever wondered what our children think?

How do Arlington kids perceive their schools?

Are we pushing grown-up issues onto our children?

I am a candidate who wants to bring their needs and vision to the School Committee of Arlington for their benefit and ours.

As a parent of three children (ages 10, 12 and 15), I see that Arlington has strong schools that we can be proud of. But I also see opportunities to do much better—particularly in ensuring every child is academically challenged, engaged, and heard. We need to address underserved students on all sides of ability spectrum.

With a Ph.D. from MIT in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, alongside a degree in Pedagogy and Psychology, I view education through unique lenses: the rigor of a scientist and the heart of an educator.

The School Committee needs a parent voice that puts students first: listening to what they're telling us, everything that they like or dislike, and consider any pragmatic actions to take to match their abilities and aspirations. We need to empower teachers to meet students' individual needs.

I am running for School Committee to build a system of strong proactive feedback between students and the Committee. Being consistently high-ranked school district, there is still plenty of room to raise the bar on academics, and make schools truly serve children.

I hope I can count on your vote on March 28, 2026!

Why am I running?

I feel that as a scientist, parent and a pedagogue, I can contribute to Arlington schools in a unique way. Drawing inspiration from works of European educators such as Janusz Korczak, Johann Pestalozzi, Simeon Soloveychik, combined with psychology, rigorous statistics and data would enable decisions that benefit our children in a meaningful positive direction.

While building on top of stellar performance of Arlington schools, I have a plan to make schools work better for all students. Specifically,

I will advocate for collecting regular feedback from students , bringing students to the table on par with grown-ups,
I will advocate for flexible pathways and stronger academic curricula to challenge students across the ability spectrum, especially for math
I will pay attention to mental health of students to avoid burnout and addiction to screens,
I will do my best to work with teachers to address their concerns.
I will advocate for treating kids with respect, trust and kindness by choice:
When we force children to adopt our values without giving them a choice, we aren't teaching them; we're just setting them up to rebel against those very values later.