Josh Henrique Bridgewater-Raynham School Committee Candidate

(Episode Description is AI generated and may be errors in accuracy)

Local school elections rarely sound dramatic, until you hear what families are being asked to give up. We sit down with Joshua Henrique, a candidate for the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School Committee, to talk about the real-world stakes behind a school budget: electives that disappear, class sizes that climb, and extracurriculars that start feeling out of reach for working families. If you care about Raynham schools, Bridgewater-Raynham students, or how your tax dollars translate into classrooms, this conversation is for you. 

Joshua walks us through his first campaign, including what it took to gather signatures on foot and what residents told him at the door. Those stories lead into the biggest theme of the interview: K-12 school funding in Massachusetts and the pressure districts feel when Chapter 70 aid and state priorities do not match rising costs. We also get into practical impacts like teacher workload, student support, and why transportation funding matters for families who cannot simply drive to school every day. 

From there, we shift to solutions and priorities: stabilizing the budget, bringing programs back, and protecting the opportunities that keep kids engaged. We talk electives, athletics fees, and the value of career and technical education as a direct pipeline into the trades and local jobs. If you’ve ever wondered how a school committee decision connects to scholarships, workforce readiness, and whether young families stay in town, you’ll leave with a clearer picture. 

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Transcript

Welcome And Election Stakes

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Inside Scoop. I'm Pat Riley and we are focusing on the annual town election coming up here in the town of Rainham on Saturday, April 25th. We're focusing on the candidates in contested races. And with us right now, we have Joshua Henrique, who is a candidate for the Bridgewater Rainham Regional School Committee. Josh, thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

If anyone doesn't know you out there, what would you like them to know about Joshua Henrique? And uh give us a little background information, you know, starting, you know, how long have you lived in Rainham?

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Ooh, how long have I lived in Rainham? I live I've been living in Rainham since my freshman year of high school. Okay. And I attended Bristol Plymouth High School and uh I got a uh degree from there in business applied technology. And because that's what I wanted to do for a while, I wanted to learn about business, and then I discovered my interest in politics, and I then I went on after high school to go to a different university, but eventually two years after that, Bridgewater State University with a and I graduated from there with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. Um and you know, I'm young, I'm only twenty three years old, I'm a Republican and I've been very enthusiastic about politics and I think that there's always an opportunity in politics. There's always, you know, something going on. There's always you can always turn on the news and see something happening. And I when I was very young age, I always was always fascinated by that. I was fascinated by, you know, the different changes, the way people acted and behaved. Because it's so it's different from normal people and you have to you know, some people, especially in you know, federal government, they say and do things that you know may be true, maybe not true, but they you know, they try to do the best things that they can for the country and for the people of our country. So I think it's very interesting with politics. But I'm you know, like I said, I'm very young and I'm very um enthusiastic, very um excited for the opportunities that I can find here in my local town, but I can also want to explore expanding my political horizon, trying to become a better person, trying to help out my local community, all at the same time helping my political career grow and learning from the people rather than learning from a textbook or learning from my own personal experiences. Learning what the people want and what the people need, I think is very important, and I want to help grow myself, help grow the communities along the way.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Before Rainham, where did you did you live close by?

SPEAKER_00 2:47

I lived in Taunton.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

You lived in Taunton?

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Yeah, I lived in Taunton. You grew up in Taunton. I grew up there, yeah. My grandparents, you know, they grew up here, they lived in this town their whole lives. My mom grew uh she wasn't born here, but she grew up here. So was my my uncle.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

And so you're not a stranger to Rainham. Oh, I'm not I'm not a stranger to Rainham.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

No. No, but I've you know my grandparents have lived here my no my whole life, my my for most of my mother's whole life. So I've you know, I've basically grown up in Rainham in the surrounding community. Yeah, in the surrounding community. Right. But always and always spent a lot of time here, you know, with you know, grandma and grandpa living down the road. So I always was always spent a lot of time here. And this has always felt like home to me. I grew up in Taunton, but especially since I've been living here for for so long, that this really feels like my home.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Random's a great community.

Choosing A First Office Run

SPEAKER_00 3:39

It's a great time.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Now, how did you decide to get involved now as far as running for office? You just recently graduated, correct?

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Yes, yep. I just graduated from Bridgewater State University, just graduated there. Um, and I guess I chose now because big election, you know, coming up in November for you know midterms.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

And there's an open seat.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Yeah, yeah, there's an open seat. Um and I kind of just saw an opportunity, took my hand off, threw it in the ring, and I said, we'll see what happens. You know, I'm you know, I'll meet some people along the way, and maybe maybe I can learn a thing or two, you know, try to figure things out along the way. But yeah, it's been I've met some very nice people, both from the town, um Bridgewire and Rainham, along from like with the Republican Party and and some other like news organizations, and a lot of people, very, very nice people I've met.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

Was there a particular interest in the school committee running for that rather than something else?

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Well, I I initially wanted to run for something else, but it was so overwhelming. It's it was since it's my very first election, very first time running for public office, I was very like, whoa, slow down. Yeah. And when I saw the open seat for a school committee, I was like, now that's a nice position where I can run, I can learn from the town, I can learn from the people around me, you know, figure things out, take things a little bit slow, but I can also go in there and I'm and I can help. I can figure things out because when I was gathering signatures, a lot of parents seemed very, very upset, especially with the budgetary issues and things like that within the within the school district. But then I also spoke to some people who from the school committee and very, very, very nice people again, and a lot of very, very smart, very, very helpful, giving me advice and helping me figure out exactly where the budget, like what's going on, and that's where I figured out you know a lot of the uh things about chapter 70 and figure out where all the money for the school district comes from.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

So, what was your campaign strategy? You had to get come and get your papers to fill out, and then you had to get um signatures. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about your process because it was brand new for you.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Yeah, getting so getting the signatures, you know, um, and they said you need you only need 50. Yeah, only need 50. Only, the word only. And I was not that easy. No, it it was it wasn't too easy. It took me a couple days, which doesn't seem like a long time, but I did everything by foot. I didn't decide I didn't drive around my car, go door to door that way. I decided to go door to like foot walk on foot, go door to door, you know, knock on people's doors and just you know shake hands and try to you know be friendly, be, you know, show them I'm a part of their community too, and try to, you know, talk to them and see what are the issues. You know, what what are parents having issues with the community, with the school district and how can I help them? And walking around, you know, I decided to go in a rain on a rainy day.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

So probably not the warmest day either.

Budget Cuts Hit Electives

SPEAKER_00 6:55

No, it was very, very, very cold. So instead of walking around with my you know in a suit and tie and trying to be professional, I wore a coat and a knit hat trying to walk around and you know, I did my best, and I got my I got the 50, I got a little more than the 50 signatures I needed, and I was you know happy and grateful for all for everybody who who signed and very grateful for the people who sat and talked to me and who really wanted the conversation, you know, learn more about me and who wanted me to learn more about them because I and some parents definitely seemed like they had concerns and issues. You know, there was just one parent and you know, she had her two children, and she told me that she was very upset with the school district and that she didn't like um you know the direction that was going in, and she wanted to take her kids out of the school district entirely, moved them to a separate school school district or homeschooled up, and and then I you know I did some more research on it and I and I figured out that the biggest problem is you know electives, you know, the electives, because there's no not enough funding, not enough funding for teachers, not enough funding for electives. And it's sad that you know we're gonna lose, you know, these children aren't gonna have opportunities in our in our school district. And I don't think it's not fair to our students, it's not fair to the parents, because now the parents, if they have to homeschool, they'll stay home from work, and that can affect them economically, especially with, you know, there's still economic problems in our country and there's still problems in our state. So we need to try to help them, help the students, help the parents, help teachers too, because you know they they're being affected, you know, because I I'm a young college graduate, so I can sympathize with other young college graduates who, you know, they wanted to become a teacher, and now they're going off to try to become a teacher, and they can't get hired because they don't have enough experience, and schools want to try to hire teachers with more experience because they're gonna be a little they're gonna they're gonna be a little bit better. But we need to try to give everybody the same opportunities. So that's I really want to try to help with the budget issues, to try to help out everybody else along the way. I'm pretty sure that if we can solve these budget issues, then it will trickle down, have more teachers, which will which will you know lessen their burden in the classroom. Because 30 students is that's a lot. Because I'm when I was in high school, we had you know 30, you know, maybe sometimes higher like upper 20 students in the classroom, and that was a lot. So I can only imagine how 35.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

Yeah, more than 30.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

And in high 30s and even more in some high school classes. I know, I know.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Yeah, so I can only imagine what teachers, because it it's a bur it's a burden for the teachers, because if one student, like one student like me, I needed a little bit of extra help in the classroom when I was younger, just because you know, you just need to. You sometimes things don't click right away, and a teacher, if a teacher needs to sit there and help a student a little bit more, then the teacher needs to sit down for five minutes, teach you know the the student. But with 35 kids, they you can't do that.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

And it's gonna be so frustrating for our teachers. We've been so fortunate to have excellent teachers, but oh yes, there's only what that's so much that they can do.

Class Size Pressure On Teachers

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Yeah, there's only so much one person can do with with take taking care of, especially like younger kids, all full of energy. They you know so it I can only imagine what that's like dealing with you know 35 35 young kids in one classroom. It it's just too much for one person to handle. So hopefully getting more teachers into our schools, making it you know less you know less hassle for a teacher to deal with 35 children because they and and it's a burden for the students too, because now they have to deal with the teacher, has to handle disciplinary issues, has to handle students who need extra help. And the rest of the classroom, they need it if they need, you know, everyone teacher has to go, you know, road to row helping students. If all every student needs some help, then that's gonna take time to get through all of that.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

How do you think we solve it? Do you have any ideas, Josh? What what can we do about it? Obviously, the big issue is they need more funds.

Chapter 70 And State Funding Priorities

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Yeah. So what I would do is I would take, you know, our school district, take go with go with our town select our town select board and the school and uh town council in Bridgewater, and work together with other local school districts that are also struggling, go to our state representatives, go to our state senators, and go to the state house, you know, and say, hey, listen, we need more money for chapter 70. We in because one voice, if I go up there, one voice, they're gonna just go, no, you're no, it's okay. And because one voice is not enough. But if we go together as a team, as one big collective group, and we all say, listen, chapter 70 funding is important to our school district, it's important to our students, and it's important to our state. Massachusetts is supposed to be the most educated state in the whole country. We're supposed to be number one.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

It's that reputation.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Yeah, we're supposed to be number one. And states like Texas and Florida are gaining more and more people are moving there for the opportunities. So we're losing people. We're losing potential families who can, you know, have children grow and have them grow up, not just in our local community, but all across the state. And it's affecting everybody because now we're losing more and more people, less and less children, and other states are gonna take up, they're gonna go up in the ranks, and they're going to take over our number one spot in education. We may have the most universities, we may have, you know, most public universities, we may have the best funded universities, but if our primary and secondary education is slacking, then how children are gonna be able to go to higher education? How are they gonna go to college when they haven't learned everything? They they're missing things, they're missing, they haven't fully learned math, they haven't fully learned English, they're missing core learning skills to actually make it and go to college. Because I know that the millionaire tax that the Governor Healy passed.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Was supposed to be for exclusively for the schools and for highways, and where is that money gone?

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Exactly. Has it come to us? And I I don't think it has, because I'm seeing the way our school district is. I know for a fact that it has gone to the universities, the publicly funded universities, because I was on student government when I was at Bridgewater. I was the Senate Speaker for the Student Government Association. And I met that I we all met with the president of the university, amazing person, by the way. Um, but we met with him and you know he showed us that we're getting that they're getting all this money. And I said, Oh, that's and at the time I went, oh, that's cool. But now I'm sitting there and now I'm learning more and more, and I'm like, why hasn't that money it's gone to the higher education? Why hasn't it gone to primary and secondary, K through 12 education? Because the school districts, we because our local school districts, we need it too.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Oh yeah, our priorities on the state level are not what they should be. I mean, it's great to fund uh secondary your education um postgraduate after high school for the junior colleges, but to me you need to put that those extra funds in pre-K to 12 to get the students educated so they can get to that point.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

You know, and even I mean it's great free transit rides, but when you're not fully funding the school transportation, that should be a priority, I would think.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Yeah, yeah, I mean kids they and and kids need to get to school because parents, not every single parent has the luxury of driving their kids to school. You know, so they a lot of them re need the bus. They require bus transportation. And the state needs to, you know, they need to because they're not they're not flipping the bill entirely for it. They and they they should be. That's that's their job, that's their responsibility. And our students, they need, and that's bare minimum. I I would argue that that's bare minimum for our students to be able to just go to school.

Electives Athletics And Trades Opportunities

SPEAKER_02 15:20

So any other insight you have into the school budget or what you would like to bring to our Bridgewater Rainham schools? What do you think should be priorities?

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Well, first fixing the budget and getting the school funded and operational, getting all the schools funding and operational, and getting them working to a point where before the budget issues, getting them back to normal, getting every and getting everybody at least okay and at least happy enough with the way it is. And then from there, after we fix the those standard budget issues, I would want to go on afterwards and try to improve, make things better than they were before the budget issues. Try to, because you know, students need electives, so maybe try to put more funding into electives, try to get students to be more active in extracurricular activity, because and I know sports, sports are not free. Parents have to pay for sports and it's expensive. It's a it is really expensive because you have to pay for the uniforms, pay for the equipment. And if you have multiple kids and they all want to do a different sport, and you have to pay for all that equipment, all and that's that's a lot of money. And I don't think parents should have to choose between sending kids to athletics or extracurricular activity or paying bills. I don't think that they should choose between that, because athletics are a very important way of students getting scholarships and enrolled in colleges. And that's there's a very easy way for them to do it, because and they can go to very, very good schools by doing athletics. So then that's that's their future if they decide to become pro-athletes or just use athletics as a scholarship to get a good degree. So we should try to help them the best they can. And if if we do good now, they're gonna stay here and they're gonna help improve the town even more. They're they're gonna want to stay, they're gonna want to raise families, and they're going to build our community up even better.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

And you have to have well-educated students or and well-skilled in the trades in order to fill the jobs that we need in the community for sure.

Service Mindset And Future Goals

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Yep, yep. I like I went to Bristol Plymouth High School, and there I knew a lot of people who lived in Rainham and as well as the local Taunton and the other local towns, and you know, and a lot of very nice, a lot, very nice people, a lot of great people, and you know, they all learn trades. And I know some of them have either they've gone, you know, to college or they've gone into the armed forces, but most, a lot of them went and they got jobs in their trades. And now they serve our local communities or in our surrounding communities, and they're actually helping to build and improve them with you know, whether they're a carpenter or an electrician or a plumber, HVAC specialist. You know, the you know, these people are doing, you know, people I graduated with, they're building our community locally through trade. You know, they're trades, and I think that that's extremely important, you know.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Okay. What else would you like our viewers, other than we need to tell everybody to get out and vote for sure?

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

But what else would you like them to know about you or why you're running?

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Well, like I said, I this is my very first political campaign, and I'm hoping one day to run, continue running and and trying to get even higher offices. I want to in in the near future, I want to run for Congress. It's I want to become a representative in Congress, and I think that serving my local community will help ground me. Because I know a lot of people, the second they get in they get in that position, and they just see the power and they see the money, and and I don't want to be corrupted by that. I don't want to become corrupted by Washington, D.C. and the power and the influence that and the money that I can get you. That's not I'm not interested in that in politics. I didn't know it comes with the job, but that's not why I'm doing it really. I want to do it because it it interests me. Yeah, I'm very interested in it. And I like, I noticed that I'm always happier when I'm helping people, when I'm serving a greater purpose than myself. I did that when I was at Bridgewater doing the student government. I always felt super happy at the end of the day after we did a fundraiser or we did an event, and a bunch of students came by and we gave them free food, and we they they seemed so happy, and that made me happy. So I want to try to serve our town the best we can and learn from the people here and have them know that when I do go in the higher office, that I always be thinking about them. I always be thinking about the people that I represent back home, my hometown of Rainham, knowing that you know they are they're watching me, and if I mess up, they're gonna judge me. And you know, and they're gonna, you know, hopefully they'll come up pitchforks and you know torches if I do mess up. You know, so but I don't want to. I don't want to mess up them. I I want to do by them the best job that I can and guarantee to them that you know you know everybody is gonna make mistakes, and you know, maybe I don't make all the great decisions all the time, but I will always do in the best interest for them. And when I get elected to school committee, I will always be in the best interest of the students. The students, while I'm on the school committee, will be my number one priority always. And when I do go in the higher office, I hope to take my education experience and hope to bring the education with me. I love education, I love our schools and universities. I'm an educated person. I hope that one day I go back, get a master's degree, even get a doctorate, one day even like retire from politics, maybe become a professor. That would be awesome. But and I just love the schools, and I just want to help build them up because to me, students and children are the future.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

They're the future of our country, they're the future of our of our people, they've they'll carry on our traditions, they'll carry on our history, and they'll learn everything from us. And I want our schools to teach them that even though, you know, maybe like our generation, we messed up, we've messed up the planet, we've messed up things along the way. But I want them to say, look, like sit down and say, listen, we messed up. I want you to learn from our mistakes. And be better. And that's what I want to do. I want to learn from my previous generations and build a better nation, a better community, even better than we've ever had it. And I want the next the next generation behind me, who sits in this chair and who runs for school committee, I want them to say the same thing. I want to be better than Joshua Henry. I want to be better than him. I want to be the same as him. I want to be better. Because you can always, I, you know, you can always have inspiration. There's always people who inspire you, but I don't want to be like them. I want to be better than them. Because if you do the same job as this as the guy before you, you're not doing a good job. You're just doing the same job that he did. I want to be better. I want to continue to build up. You know, build up, build up from generation to generation. Don't build down, build up.

SPEAKER_02 22:53

Better and better.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Yep.

How To Vote And Deadlines

SPEAKER_02 22:55

We've got a few minutes left. Um, Joshua, do you want to talk to the voters? And obviously we want them to get out and vote. And if anyone is not registered yet, there's still a little bit more time. Wednesday, April 15th, 5 o'clock p.m. here at Town Hall is the deadline to register to vote. You can also do it online, I believe. And if um voting again is Saturday, April 25th, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Rainham Middle School. But if you are going to be away or you know that you're not going to be available for some reason, come to Town Hall, get an absentee ballot or a mail-in ballot. Yeah, and those have to be in obviously by election day.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

Well go ahead, Josh. The floor is yours.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

Okay, well, voting is not just your your civic duty, it's your civic right. And I always find that expressing your rights and your freedoms and doing the few things that your nation asks of you to do is extremely important, especially in your local communities. And just because you know it's a school committee election or it's a selectman election, you know, it's only a local election, it's not a presidential election. Everything matters because it trickles, everything trickles up, everything trickles down. And we're using your tax dollars um to do this, and we're sending your children to school. So you want to make the best choices for your children. You want to make the best choices of your tax dollars if you don't have children in the school district, in the school system. And you just make do what you think is the best decision for you, for your family. What you think is the best decision is the best decision. When you are in that ballot box and you got the pen and your paper in your hand, and you're looking at all the names, and if you think my name is the best name for the job, then if I'm the best person for the job, then that that's your choice, that's your decision. And I I hope, I hope I've convinced you a little bit that I am. I hope that you will you will choose me and you will decide that I am the best choice for the job. But no matter what you choose, it's your decision, and it's always the right decision, and you can always change your mind in three years in the ballot box again. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

Thank you. Thank you, Josh. And we want to thank you uh for being with us. Our guest for this portion of our inside scoop is Joshua Henrique, candidate for the Bridgewater Rainham Regional School Committee. We have two contested races. There are other candidates on the ballot who are running uncontested, but two contested races that our voters need to decide. Two for school committee, James DuPont, or Joshua Henrique, and three for select board. So turn out and vote because we need everybody to vote. Thank you so much for being with us. We'll see you here in the next episode of the Inside Scoop.