BEVERLY — The only School Committee race this year is in Ward 4 — the Cove and Montserrat area — where two-year incumbent Karen Fogarty is running against Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility co-founder Gail Burke.
The two candidates were prominent players during last year's tumultuous decision to close McKeown Elementary School. Fogarty supported a tax override, and Burke emerged as a strong opponent to it.
Both women have been going door to door, handing out brochures, putting up lawn signs and listening to their constituents.
The election is Nov. 3.
Karen Fogarty
Age: 46
Address: 169 Lothrop St.
Occupation: Real estate sales agent for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Beverly
Family: Husband Edward, 11-year-old son who attends sixth grade at Briscoe Middle School
From: Manchester, N.H.
Years in Beverly: 17
Hot buttons: School curriculum, the budget, enhancing the district's annual report, the superintendent search
Two months after Karen Fogarty was elected in 2007, the school district announced a financial crisis.
"My term started off very quickly. There wasn't much of a honeymoon period," she said. "I think I was very effective during the budget process."
She also acted on the redistricting of all elementary students, and last year her then-fifth-grader, Henry, was moved from Cove to Hannah.
"I realized I wasn't just giving lip service to an idea and just telling parents they could feel confident," she said about the situation. "I wasn't just saying it because I thought it was true. I lived it, and I knew it was true."
As a supporter of the override, Fogarty said she strongly felt the city needed additional revenue to provide the best education for its students.
"I felt the time had come to say, 'Look — we've done a lot, but we can't do more in the parameters we have,'" she said.
Because the community voted it down, however, she said she considers it off the table.
Now that the dust has settled, she's looking toward the future.
Reviewing curriculum, she said, is at the top of her agenda.
"We need to really be looking at performance and using the data to tell us where we're successful and where we need to make adjustments," she said.
Fogarty is head of the committee that produces the district's annual report. She wants to strengthen the document to include not just areas of improvement and success, but to highlight scholarships, innovative programs, new technologies and other accomplishments.
The search to replace 11-year Superintendent James Hayes, who is leaving at the end of the school year, is also a top priority.
"It's huge," Fogarty said. "It's an important moment in our community."
Gail Burke
Age: 70
Address: 80 Boyle St.
Occupation: Retired administrative assistant for Schepens Eye Research Institute in Boston
Family: Husband John W. Burke Jr., a grown son who lives in Boxford, and two grown daughters who live in Oregon and Colorado
From: Melrose
Years in Beverly: Five
Hot buttons: School curriculum and the budget
When her kids attended public school in Melrose, Gail Burke was an active member of the citywide PTO and involved in years of educational research.
When she retired and moved to Beverly five years ago, the school system naturally piqued her interest.
"I'm very interested in the decline of the quality of education," Burke said.
At first she sat back and listened. There was a proposal for an override in 2006 — which did not pass. The subject came up again last year as many residents fought for a tax increase to keep the city from closing McKeown Elementary School.
"That was the straw that broke the camel's back," she said. "I said, 'You can't keep doing this.'"
She co-founded the grass-roots organization Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility, which sought to provide people with information about the override. Ultimately, residents voted it down.
"The government has to learn to live within a budget," she said. "They can't keep going back to the money tree, which is the people."
If elected, she said she'll take a hard look at what students are being taught.
"I would like to see a review of the entire curriculum," she said. "Can we make it better? I really think we can."
The Everyday Math Program, for instance, is not working, she said, and it's been confirmed by many of the people she's talked to.
She would promote a dress code across the board.
"I'm not talking uniforms," she said. Rather, she would support appropriate attire, like no belly shirts for girls and no "pants that are falling off of them," for boys.
Burke said she's looking forward to serving on the committee.
"I have some things to say," she said. "I have some questions to ask, and they're not being asked. And I'll ask them."
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