March 2006

Matt Grimes ('01) Reflects on School Board Service 

“The greatest way of giving back to your community is to serve on the school board,” Matt Grimes recalled Fredric Jablin telling his leadership studies students on more than one occasion. Grimes couldn’t agree more. 

Grimes returned to his hometown of Brookfield, Conn., after graduating from the University of Richmond with a double major in leadership studies and communications in May 2001. A month later he was asked to run for the Brookfield Board of Education. When he won election in November 2001, he became the first graduate of Brookfield High School to serve on the town’s school board.   

“There was a general morale problem in the school system at the time I ran for office,” Grimes said. “I thought I could help, and as a graduate of Brookfield High, I brought a perspective to the board that they hadn’t had before.”  

At the time of Grimes’ election, the school board was grappling with the pressing need to renovate and expand the outdated high school building and bring it up to code. Grimes became the chief advocate for the high school building project when he assumed the chairmanship of the school board’s Facilities Committee.  

A year before the high school project came up for a vote, Grimes and other elected officials watched voters strike down four referendums on the town and school operating budgets and a special referendum that projected the cost of the high school renovation and expansion at $24 million. Despite the low prospects for success, Grimes didn’t give up on the desperately needed school building project.  

“I pulled out the Jepson playbook,” Grimes said, citing lessons he learned in Suzanne Morse’s Creative Collaboration class and Thomas Wren’s Conflict Resolution class. “I brought various parts of the community together to discuss the particulars and build consensus.”  

Adding to the difficulty of his task, the new proposed building project carried a $31 million price tag ($7 million more than the original proposal), making it one of the most expensive undertakings in the history of Brookfield, a town of only 15,000 residents. Nevertheless, Grimes’ efforts paid off when voters finally approved the building project at a referendum in April 2003.  

The school board celebrated another success a month later when it hired a new superintendent for the town’s schools. “How many 23-year-olds can say they had a hand in hiring a CEO?” Grimes joked when he reflected on the part he played in the recruiting and hiring process.  

Apparently fellow school board members, impressed by Grimes’ ability to get results, were undeterred by his youth. They elected him chairman of the school board in December 2003, and he completed his two-year term in December 2005.  

Although Grimes typically spent between 20 and 25 hours a week on school board business during his four-year tenure—all unpaid and in addition to the full-time job he held first as an insurance adjuster with AIG in New York City and then as the operations manager of a Brookfield sports complex—he has no regrets. “My parents and grandparents always talked about being involved in your local community,” Grimes said. “Serving on the school board was my way of addressing the social capital issues raised in the Robert Putnam readings we discussed in Jepson.” 

For the past few years, Grimes put a lot of career and education decisions on hold due to time constraints resulting from his school board commitments. Now that his term is over, Grimes plans to enroll in graduate school this fall to pursue a dual degree in law and business administration. But he hasn’t ruled out serving in local government again after completing his education.  

“I would encourage everyone to get involved in their community,” Grimes said. He stressed the importance of running for a local office and voting in local elections. Although voter turnout is statistically much higher in national elections than it is in local elections, Grimes said, local elections have a greater impact on the average citizen. “Local elections affect your roads, your schools and your taxes,” he said, “so get out there and vote!”