Bristol Warren Regional School Commitee member Erin Schofield spent three hours Monday night at a policy subcommittee meeting, making sure initiatives she was working on were complete. She wanted to …
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Bristol Warren Regional School Committee member Erin Schofield spent three hours Monday night at a policy subcommittee meeting, making sure initiatives she was working on were complete. She wanted to make sure that if she lost her seat on the committee the following day, “that I was going to end on a good note.”
She needn’t have worried, though she said she did. Ms. Schofield beat challenger Chuck Thibaudeau by a thin margin of 176 votes, winning another two years on the committee by 1,852 votes to 1,676 cast for Mr. Thibaudeau.
It was a tough campaign for both candidates, who ran on vastly different platforms. Mr. Thibaudeau spoke of a need for change in the schools’ administration, saying the district needed wholesale changes in how it prepares high school students for the real world, deals with technology in the classroom and stands behind its teachers and staff.
Ms. Schofield, who agreed with the need for more support for teachers district-wide, focused her campaign on the need to continue many of the good changes she said she’s seen taking hold in the district over the past few years.
Tuesday night, as the numbers came in at an election party at Federal Hill Pizza, dozens of supporters cheered as it became clear that she’d won. Ms. Schofield stood and cried, getting a hug from her husband Asher and children in the center of the room.
“I had no idea” what was going to happen, she said a few minutes later. “I didn’t know if it was going to be a landslide by one of us or the other. It’s very hard to get a read on these things.”
She said this campaign was much tougher than her first two years ago, because she has so much more invested.
“I think there’s just more at stake because you’re so much more invested and you’re working on projects and passions and things you care about that you may have to leave unfinished. But I’m very happy, very happy. It was an emotional roller coaster.”
The morning after the election, Mr. Thibaudeau said he’s ready to move on, but is happy that both sides ran what he called a “clean” race.
“I wish her the best,” he said. “I thought it was a really clean race. It didn’t get dirty. It is what it is, and there’s no sour grapes.”
Though Mr. Thibaudeau has long been unofficially involved in the school district, helping to mentor and find work placement for high school students who might not be bound for college, he said he will mostly step back from his involvement with school policy and advocacy, though his work with high school seniors will continue.
“I don’t want to step on Erin’s toes, so I’m going to step back a little bit so she can do her thing,” he said. “I’m going to keep promoting (studies in the trades, internships and the like).”