In her twenty-third year as a member of the Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School Committee, Ellen Holmes has been in the forefront of MASC’s drive to advocate for regional school issues, including concerns surrounding transportation, funding and governance. As MASC’s President, she has been a strong proponent for MASC positions on several pivotal Department of Education commissions and working groups, including the Safe & Supportive Schools Commission, Committee of Practitioners, Education Stakeholders Working Group, Adolescent Literacy Task Force and Pilot Schools Conference. Ms. Holmes has also been a forceful advocate on several MASC subcommittees, including Student Assessment; Legislative; Special Education; Advocacy; MIAA-Lacrosse (Boys & Girls); and Regional Schools, for which she served as chair 2004-2018. She has also represented MASC at the State House as a member of the Local Government Advisory Council (’08,’09,’19,’20,’21). In Boston, she has lobbied the legislature for adequate education funding, charter school reforms and regional school district needs.
A frequent participant at MASC events, Ms. Holmes has appeared on a number of Joint Conference Panels on topics including Superintendent Searches, Special Education-Autism, Regional School governance, budgeting and transportation, Rural Schools, Budget Oversight. Previously as Division IV chair, Ms. Holmes organized critical issue panels on the Opiate Crisis, the Foundation Budget Review Commission recommendations, and MSBA & MA DOER as well as MASC Delegate Assembly and Resolutions Clinic, Special Education Legal Issues, Charter School Funding, Special Education Transportation, GIC, PARCC and “What’s Driving Education – Access/New Ideas to Fuel Transportation Fleets. She has also served as a Techspo Judge at the Massachusetts Skills USA competition for eleven years.
On her local committee, she has served as Secretary; chair of the following Committees: Superintendent Search (and Administrator ’03 & ’15), Legal Services (’01-present), Sick Leave Bank (’09- present), Technology (1999 – ’02), Superintendent Evaluation (1999 & 2003) and Investment (’17-). She has also been a member of Sick Leave Bank, Technology, Transportation, Legislative Liaison, Interscholastic Athletic, Budget, Full Day K, Policy Sub, School Committee Handbook, District Wellness Committee, and AWRSC Representative on Ashburnham Infrastructure Committee, CAPS Collaborative (Vice Chair) and Keystone Collaborative. Ms. Holmes also serves as President of Oakmont Youth Soccer, Secretary of the Gordon E. Erickson Memorial Fire Rescue Foundation, participant in the Westminster Town Benefit, Church Deacon and Chair of the Investment Financial Advisory Committee and the Yankee Street Fair in addition to her role as Church Moderator of the First Congregational Church of Westminster.
A proud graduate of Seekonk High School, Wheaton College (BA) and Providence College (MA), Ms. Holmes and her husband, Roger Hoyt, are parents to three children, two of whom are on the autism spectrum and are civil engineering college graduates.