Jill Stevens to fill School Committee vacancy

Canton parent Jill Stevens will fill the 10-month vacancy on the School Committee left after Tim Brooks resigned for work related reasons.

Jill Stevens

Stevens was appointed to the committee at the July 13 Board of Selectmen meeting among a pool of eight potential candidates. Canton government procedures state that when such a vacancy arises, it is to be filled in a joint selection process by the BOS and the affected board or committee.

An educator by trade, Stevens oversees the Sharon Middle School Program for METCO Inc., the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, a voluntary desegregation program that brings minority students from inner-city schools to a suburban school setting.

Cindy Thomas, the vice chairperson of the School Committee, said she never expected the appointment process would elicit such a large number of high-caliber candidates. She urged the other candidates to stay involved whether it be politically or in volunteer positions within the school district.

“The main challenge is this is only a 10-month appointment,” Thomas said. “That’s not a lot of time for someone to learn, and when we looked at the candidates, Jill had the most familiarity with the issues facing the school.”

Stevens, who has two daughters in the district — a soon-to-be sixth grader at the Galvin Middle School and a third grader at the Hansen — began to regularly attend School Committee meetings and become more involved within the public schools following the failed override in 2007. For the past two years she has run the CAPE Spelling Bee and Honor Thy Teacher Program.

“I know in my first year on the committee, I’ve seen her frequently in the audience at the meetings,” Thomas said. “When I spoke with her, she said when she’s not able to make the meetings, she tries to catch them on cable.”

Running for the School Committee is not a new idea for Stevens, who took out papers for the last election before deciding not to submit them.

“I always thought I would run,” Stevens said. She said she wasn’t inclined to run, however, in a contested election where she respected and was inspired by her potential opponent. “John Bonnanzio had been chairman before, and I just felt like his experience and knowledge would be valuable for the committee and community,” she said.

A strong believer in the importance of public education to American society, Stevens said she was excited to begin work on the committee.

“I’d like to continue to keep the bar high and help Canton embrace new diversity going forward,” she said.

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Posted by Jeffrey Cattel on Jul 22 2010. Filed under News, Schools. Both comments and pings are currently closed.