Who’s Vying to Fill Clinton’s Troubled School Committee

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Sandy Meindersma, GoLocalWorcester Reporter

Clinton’s School Committee has had some difficult days of late, with a failed override last year, a no confidence vote in the committee and superintendent earlier this month and a budget shortfall for this year.

Neither of the incumbents, Virginia West and Debbie Wetherbee decided to seek re-election, creating two open seats on the school board.

Angela Leblanc, Kelly Turcotte and Cathy Woods are all competing for those seats on the committee in the town’s annual election on June 11.

Leblanc Concerned About Students Leaving

Leblanc, who graduated from Clinton High School in 1978, currently works as a substitute teacher in the school system. She wants the school system to remain competitive so that graduates will return to town and raise their families here.

“If we don’t take care of our kids now, they won’t want to come back and raise their kids here,” Leblanc said. “I’m in the classes; I see what’s missing and what needs to be done. I see what we need to do for our kids to be able to compete in college.”

Leblanc, who is a certified teacher, said her biggest concern is the number of students who are leaving the district.

“In 2007, it was 45. In 2011, it was 2011, it was 99,” Leblanc said. “We have 132 school choice students coming in, and that number is shrinking. We need to find out how to keep kids here. Not everybody returns surveys – we need to use a more personal approach.”

Leblanc said she wants to see the schools offer more advanced classes, particularly at the middle school level. “They need to add foreign languages and bring back the arts,” she said. “We have to invest money into the schools.”

Leblanc said she was in favor of lobbying the state legislature to fund the special education mandates. “24 percent of our budget is SPED – it’s going to be a battle between special education and regular education,” she said.

Turcotte Wants Long Term Budget Planning

Turcotte, who has four children, has also been actively involved in the schools. “I’m co-president of the PTA; I chair the special education parent advisory committee,” she said.

Turcotte expressed concerns about the school budget, calling the upcoming fiscal year a “dire year,” and said that there needs to be some new blood and new ideas on the school committee.

“It’s hard to say where I could help out, but there should be term limits,” she said.

Turcotte also expressed concern about the sitting school committee’s ability to lead the schools, given the recent “no confidence” vote the teachers’ union took against Superintendent Terrance P. Ingano and the School Committee.

“And that was right after the School Committee gave the superintendent very positive reviews,” Turcotte said. “I’m not a politician, but there have been supply issues, and there is a lot of photocopying that goes on. It must be cheaper to buy the workbooks than to do all that copying.”

Turcotte said she was part of last year’s $600,000 override that failed. “We’re not in a position to do it (another override vote) this year,” she said. “This is a working class town, with almost 50 percent of our students on free or reduced price lunch, but we keep band-aiding the budget and not making any long term plans.”

GoLocalWorcester made several calls to Woods, who is also running for School Committee, but they were not returned.

Clinton also has one seat open on the Board of Selectman, and incumbent William F. Connolly Jr. is running unopposed for re-election.