Election Scorecard: School Committee Race Gets Challenger

Editor's note: This article was updated on Wednesday, Sept. 14 with additional information and comments from Maryan Hollis.

A still sleepy Melrose campaign field perked up slightly last week, when Maryan Hollis, a regular attendee and speaker at Melrose School Committee meetings, took out nomination papers for School Committee.

Hollis pulled papers last Thursday, Sept. 1, joining potential Ward 7 Alderman candidate Francis Murphy as the only non-incumbents to have taken out nomination papers from the city's Election Office for the biennial city on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

A former School Committee member herself from 1998-2004, over the past year Hollis has frequently attended the committee's meetings and regularly chastised the committee on procedural matters.

In January, with the state alleging two Open Meeting Law violations by the committee. that the committee did not violate the law in the two ways that Hollis alleged, but in the course of their review, found the committee violated the law by not providing, on its meeting agenda, sufficient detail—specifically, the name of the employee whose contract was to be discussed in executive session.

In an email, Hollis cited Melrose High School being (and specifically the lack of a written curriculum alignment plan, as noted in NEASC's report); in the category of civil rights; and "unacceptable" class sizes at the high school.

Hollis also pointed to Melrose students' performance on standardized tests such as MCAS, Advanced Placement exams and the SATs as demonstrating that, "despite the effort of the many fine teachers in our district," Melrose Public Schools is not delivering a "quality" education to students.

"I believe that there needs to be a change in the way that the School Committee conducts its business that will promote and support effective meetings as well as transparent collaborative budget discussions with all stakeholders," she wrote. "I am an experienced voice having served two terms on the SC and feel that I have the tools to help our district to return to a status of which we can all be proud as we once were. I am doing this for the kids, parents and taxpayers who may or may not have children in the district.”

Melrosians have until Friday, Sept. 16 to pull papers for alderman or School Committee; the deadline for . All current incumbents have already taken out papers for their current seats.

Ironically, while only two potential challengers have emerged for 14 elected city positions so far, in February this year, for the alderman at-large seat vacated by now Rep. Paul Brodeur, D-Melrose.

School Committee member , but he was not up for re-election until 2013 and according to the Melrose city charter, former School Committee member Don Lehman is next in line to fill the vacancy created by LaRock’s departure, having receiving the highest number of votes of committee candidates who were not elected.

Ward aldermen candidates need a minimum of 20 certified signatures on nomination papers to become official candidates; alderman at-large and School Committee candidates require 130 certified signatures.

As of this week, eight candidates have returned their papers to the Elections Office with enough signatures. The candidates and their status' are listed in the chart below:

Below is the most up-to-date information on who's running and who's not in Melrose's 2011 election. All names in each ward are listed alphabetically, and incumbents are marked with an asterisk. Please contact Melrose Election Administrator Linda-Lee Angiolillo at 781-979-4125 with any questions.

Planning on a run for office? Let us know!

Mayor

Board of Aldermen

School Committee