2001 Candidates
Mary Pat DevineBoard of Education
2001 Candidates
Mary Pat Devine
The Democratic Town Committee is happy to endorse Mary Pat Devine for a second four-year term as a member of the Board of Education. She is one of the Democratic Team members with a solid record of "getting things done."
Mary Pat has summarized her campaign as "The Three C's," stressing Communication, Curriculum and Character. Another term on the board will allow her to see the building projects through to completion and continue working to improve curricular offerings for all of Ridgefield's students.
Among her priorities is extending the current character education program and including a stronger emphasis on community service as part of the curriculum for Ridgefield's students. Mary Pat promises to continue to push for better communication among the town's boards as well as between the Board of Education and the entire community.
During the past fifteen years Mary Pat has worked to improve our town's schools. Beginning as a classroom volunteer and in various capacities in PTA's - including co-presidencies at Ridgebury and East Ridge, and a vice-presidency of the Council of PTA's, she has participated at every level of our school system. She has also served as a member of the 1995 Middle School site selection committee and the sixth grade curriculum committee. For the past four years Mary Pat has been privileged to serve as a member of the Board of Education.
As part of the BOE's Outreach Committee, Mary Pat has been instrumental in creating a website for our school system, which, among other information, provides a quick and dependable way for parents and students to check for wintertime "No School Days." She has also served on the Board's School Lunch and Goals committees. Mary Pat was the BOE's liasion to the RHS "Ed Specs" Committee, drawing up the educational standards needed for the high school's renovation and expansion. She currently represents the Board on the Ridgebury Building Committee, a renovation program that is particularly dear to her heart. Nearly a decade ago, Mary Pat successfully led the battle to replace Ridgebury's leaky roof after years of neglect by then-members of the BOE.
Among her proudest accomplishments, however, has been her work in bringing a sense of common purpose and decency to a BOE which had previously been marked by political infighting, personal attacks and an ineffective approach to classroom overcrowding. Without this fundamental change in the BOE, Mary Pat believes none of the progress they have made in passing "The Bundle," improving staffing and creating the new literacy program in our elementary schools, would have been possible.
Born in Santa Monica, California, Mary Pat is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University with a major in studio art. She spent her professional career in advertising in Los Angeles and New York City before moving to Rainbow Lake in 1982 and becoming a full-time mother and volunteer in Ridgefield. She served five years as president of the Ridgefield Lakes Association and is currently active in the National Charity League and Ridgefield High Cheer Booster Club. She has been married for 22 years to Frank Devine, a producer of the CBS News broadcast "60 Minutes." They have two daughters--Elizabeth, a 2001 graduate of Ridgefield High School and Samantha, a Ridgefield High freshman.
Mary Pat emphasizes an education-oriented and non-partisan approach on the Board of Education that promotes cooperation and compromise for our children. She has been praised as an "independent thinker" who "speaks softly, but with authority and confidence." The Ridgefield Democrats are again pleased to encourage all voters to support Mary Pat Devine on November 6th.
Contact Mary Pat Devine
Brought to you by the Ridgefield, Ct.
Democratic Town Committee, Susan D. Cocco, Chairman
Paid for by The Ridgefield Democratic Town Committee, Edwin C. Pearson, Treasurer
2001 Candidates