Two more leave schools
Published on May 23rd, 2007
STONEHAM, MA - The educator vacuum continues to pluck officials away from Stoneham, as School Committee member Miriam Regan-Fiore confirmed her intentions to depart the town just weeks after SHS Principal Dr. Thomas Ryan declared his own pending retirement.
During a phone interview on Tuesday evening, the first-term School Committee member verified that she will be leaving Stoneham for the neighboring Town of Winchester.
Regan-Fiore could formally announce her resignation from the educational board as soon as next week.
According to the Ravine Road resident, whose home was placed under agreement to be sold early last May, according to information posted by various real-estate sources, she is not exactly sure when she'll actually move-out of town.
Regan-Fiore, a mother of three children in Stoneham's school system, readily admits that the town's looming fiscal crisis factored heavily into her and her husband's planned departure - although she also listed other personal reasons for the change.
"I will definitely miss the work on the School Committee. It's been an honor and a privilege to serve," the future Winchester resident said. "I hope people will support the town and the schools and do what's right to bring stability back."
"I'll tell you what I've told anybody who's asked. It wasn't arrived at lightly and it wasn't one thing [that drove our decision]."
"I'm a parent first, and like any other parent, the budget and the schools' ability to retain services was of course a concern of mine," Regan-Fiore continued. "So I would say that [the deficit threat] was a contributing factor, but not the primary one. The reasons to leave were more compelling that those to stay."
Town Clerk John Hanright, who has not received any written notice of the rookie School Committee member's upcoming resignation, explained that both the Selectmen and local educational board will name the Ravine Road resident's replacement.
Local residents interested in filling the normally elected position will be afforded the opportunity to proclaim their candidacy in a written notice to both boards.
"People would file [formal papers] and then the School Committee and Selectmen would get together and choose a candidate," said Hanright of the process. "Whoever that person is would then have to get on the ballot for the next annual election to seek another term."
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