Beth McManus to End Tenure on Norton School Committee

Norton School Committee member Beth McManus announced on Monday she is leaving the committee after six years.

“The past six years have flown by and they’re some of the most rewarding in my life,” she said. “I have served with people I hold in the utmost respect.”

McManus also worked in the schools as a school department employee.

“It allowed her to bring perspective to the school committee,” said committee chair Andrew Mackie. “When she was in the school committee, she didn’t just limit her work to the school committee. She reached out and was involved in a lot of other things in the town.”

School committee members gave McManus a heartfelt goodbye from the committee and wished her the best.

“We’ve served together for five years, an amazing five years,” said committee member Deniz Savas. “You and I ended up serving on committees together for negotiations and tons of budget meetings. All laugh out loud times. Over the years I think we became like a sounding board for each other. We really got to know each other very well. I think we’ve become not just colleagues, but friends over the years.”

Savas added for him, the work of the committee involved so many numbers in the budget, and it can be hectic and insensitive. He said McManus helped to remind him what stood behind those numbers.

“It can become really impersonal at times and if you’re not careful, you can forget there are people behind what you’re voting on,” he said. “You never forgot, never once. It never ceases to amaze me how human you make this. I appreciate that.”

McManus said one of the aspects of the Norton school system she found so rewarding was the quality of education.

“You can’t tell me that the Norton Public Schools don’t give the best education possible,” she said. “I have three daughters going to Johnson and Wales, Wentworth and Lemoyne, and I could not have asked any more from the Norton Public Schools.”

McManus added she believes education is one of the most important aspects of public life one can give to.

“I said this to the staff earlier, I quoted Benjamin Franklin who said ‘An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest,” she said. “In that regard I’m leaving a very rich woman today.”