Ridgefield Candidates '97
Board of Education

Mary Pat Devine

Education Over Egos

The following statement was published in The Ridgefield Press on October 30, 1997:

I ask your support on Tuesday to restore a sense of courtesy, civility and cooperation to our Board of Education. It is time to place education over egos and end the personal bickering and politically-motivated flip-flops that have prolonged school overcrowding and squandered taxpayer-appropriated money.

I have said that I got into this race primarily out of frustration. What I have found out along the campaign trail is that many of you feel that same frustration. For too long, the Board of Ed has been mired in politics and personal agendas, deadlocks and disrespect. Our children's education has taken a back seat. You've told me it's time for a change.

On Tuesday, I ask your support in ending the era of million-dollar boondoggles. I ask your support in electing BOE members who understand they serve as a board of policy-makers and not freelance mini-superintendents.

I ask your support in ending the middle school crowding crisis and in creating a fifth-grade curriculum that parallels our new 6th grade program. I ask your support in instituting a formal writing program that can be introduced into the curriculum at all levels. I ask your support in building teacher competency in technology and in considering space for extended-day kindergarten as part of any facilities expansion.

Most of all, I ask your support in re-building our Board of Education so that children, not politics, are the priority, and courtesy and common decency are the rule. Thanks.

Contributions to Ms. Devine's campaign may be sent to Mary Pat Devine for Board of Education, 23 Overlook Drive. Information about the campaign can be seen at the new Democratic Web site, www.ridgefielddems.org.

Campaign '97 Home GO TO Mary Pat Devine profile and position statements

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