Three new faces will join the nine-member Bristol Warren Regional School Committee, as half of Bristol’s share of six representatives are to be chosen this November due to Marjorie McBride, Karen Cabral, and Sarah Bullard all opting not to run for another term.

But with only three interested individuals filing papers to run for office, their bid for public office transformed from the usual type of anticipatory nervousness associated with entering any kind of competition for a different, more unusual type of nervousness — realizing that they got the job, and now having months to think about what that actually means.

The Phoenix interviewed each candidate regardless of the lack of challengers to get their perspective on why they decided to run for the school committee, and to share their priorities with you. They are presented in the order they responded to requests to be interviewed. All three have gathered the required, verified signatures per the Secretary of State’s online database.

Glenn Donovan

A Bristolian since he was an infant, Glenn Donovan has three kids in the district spanning each level of education, with his youngest going into 5th grade at Guiteras, the middle attending 7th grade at Kickemuit Middle School, and his oldest going into their sophomore year at Mt. Hope High School.

“A few years back there was a lot of tension…contentious meetings, and it does seem like that’s calmed down,” he said of his motivation to run. “Certainly it’s a desire to have another voice in there that would be open and willing to work together and make sure that we don’t get back to where we were three or four years ago and having three children in the school system, I am heavily invested in making sure we can continue to see some improvement in the district.”

Donovan, an electrical and computer engineer who worked at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport for 21 years, now works at Raytheon, and specializes in working on undersea vehicles.

While he said his priorities included addressing the needs of all students, including students with IEPs, and continuing to improve the opportunities for career and technical education (CTE) programming, he maintained that part of why he thinks he would be good on the board is because he comes with no ulterior motives or strong agendas.

“I try to pride myself on being easy to work with and open minded and willing to listen to all different perspectives and not really coming in with any one particular agenda,” he said. “Just to be a calm voice that people can trust, be willing to come to and be willing to listen to peoples’ concerns and keep the school committee on the right track.”

Megan Joy Ferreira

Asked how it felt to be talking over the summer before an election in a congratulatory interview rather than a purely introductory one leading into a competitive election season, Megan Joy Ferreira was honest about how it hadn’t been the experience she was expecting.

“It’s a little surprising,” said Megan Joy Ferreira. “I wish there were another one or two candidates to make it something you have to work for.”

Work is something Ferreira has been putting in as an involved parent for years now, spending the past two years as the co-president of the Guiteras Elementary PTO and working on the Bristol Warren Regional School District Special Education Local Advisory Council (SELAC) as an advocate for students with special education needs — something she points to as a top priority for her tenure on the committee.

“Some personal experiences with educational resources with one of my own children really pushed me to want to be able to get on the school committee,” she said of her motivations for running. “I know I will only be one vote, but in the hope that my one vote can help children like my son and other families in the same position.”

Ferreira, who grew up for 12 years in Anchorage, Alaska before moving to East Providence (where she graduated high school) has two young children who attend Guiteras. She married a native Bristolian, which brought her to the town in 2017.

In addition to her advocacy for special education, Ferreira has a financial background as an HR manager at Fidelity Investments for the past 12 years. She said that the combination of skills in managing money, people, and priorities that matter to her and many other families in the district, will make her an asset on the board.

“I have a lot of skillsets … Understanding people have differences of opinions and that’s okay, we just have to be able to respect each other’s opinions and do what is best for the children in the district and do financially what makes sense,” she said. “I just hope to be able to be a positive voice for improving things for children related to special education.”

Margaret Elise Richards

This election is a far cry from the mid-term election two years ago, when eight candidates ran for three open seats. Margaret Elise Richards was one of those eight, and although that race didn’t end in her favor, she said in a way, it’s better to be winning this year than during the tumult that was occurring back then.

“The school bond, social issues and things in the media and coming out of Covid — the issues people wanted to talk about and were concerned about back then is different today,” she said. “But there remains things that are really important and remains things I am in a position to help our community make progress on.”

With three kids in the district, Richards said that improving the communication and transparency between the the district administration and parents is something she would like to see improved.

“I spent some time working with our parent group this year and it just seems there’s still a lot more that school leadership can do to help keep our families informed, but also to create more accessible spaces for people to share their concerns,” she said. “For myself and a lot of friends of mine, it’s hard to know who to go to with concerns about your kids…Generally speaking I’d like to see us default towards transparency and making it easier for people to come forward with their concerns in the right way and to the right people.”

A native of upstate New York, Richards moved to Bristol in early 2020. She has a master’s in International Education from Harvard. She has taught from the kindergarten to adult-level education, including ESL in South Korea, math in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), and was an adjunct math professor at Trinity University. She trained volunteer teachers to assist immigrant families in FSM, and worked with the Tanzanian Ministry of Education to develop the country’s first e-learning strategy. She also has experience promoting and developing curricula and programming in STEM, mental health, entrepreneurship, accounting, and data collection/analysis.

Richards said that having a lot of new faces coming onto the school committee this year will be a good opportunity to form new strong relationships based on their various experiences.

“I’m a good listener, so I have a lot to learn and listen to from current and previous leadership,” she said. “A lot of us are coming in this year new to the school committee…I’m excited to have a great group fo people working together bringing in different types of experience and a commitment to our kids and our community.”