Wicked Local
PLYMOUTH – Margie Burgess won her first seat on the Plymouth School Committee the hard way. She lost it in the same fashion.
Twenty-three years after winning her first election for the school board, Burgess was ousted Saturday by a newcomer who failed in her first bid to fill a vacancy just months earlier. Burgess did the same thing in 1998, getting the nod from voters after town officials gave her a pass.
In a five-candidate race for three three-year terms Saturday, Burgess was edged out of a seat on the board by Katherine Jackson by 290 votes. Board Chairman Kim Savery Hunt and member Vedna Heywood won re-election to the Committee with 3,086 votes and 2,811 votes, respectively.
Meet Luis Pizano: Plymouth s newest School Committee member
PLYMOUTH – New School Committee member Luis Pizano sets an example for students and parents alike.
Born in poverty to immigrant parents, Pizano studied hard to get into college and earn an engineering degree. And now, after building a successful career and settling in West Plymouth with his wife and two children, Pizano is committed to paying it back by volunteering in schools.
“I know it sounds a bit cliché, but my primary motivation is to give back and serve the community. I believe I can make a real difference and inject new blood in the policy-making process. I feel I do owe it to the community to always try to be an engaged parent,” Pizano said in an interview.
JAM SESSION: 11 candidates for four months
Wicked Local
Jam session is an opinion forum offering comments on issues from a group of Plymouth residents. It appears on the Forum pages in the Weekend edition of the OCM.
The newspaper poses a question to the group each week, and participants choose whether to comment. This column is designed to bring the voices of well-informed residents into the Forum page to address issues, one at a time.
Participants cross the local political spectrum and live throughout the town. Some are current or past Town Meeting representatives, and all are active in the community. We hope their diverse points of view will encourage discussion of the issues Plymouth faces.