SALISBURY — Six weeks into her term on the Triton Regional School Committee, Dale Knowles has been physically unable to attend a single meeting and will resign on July 7, according to her husband, Salisbury Selectman Fred Knowles.
The Knowleses shocked the Salisbury community when Dale Knowles' candidacy was announced in April. She was unable to work or care for herself as she faced an ongoing and difficult recovery from brain cancer.
Fred Knowles admitted her run for School Committee was an effort to qualify her for her state teacher's pension, allowing her to be vested for future retirement or disability payments.
According to Fred Knowles' calculations at the time, Dale Knowles needed one more year to have 10 years and be vested for retirement or disability payments. A special education teacher with a master's degree, she planned to go back to teaching, he said, but just in case she couldn't, a seat on the Triton School Committee would give her the time she needed to be vested. Dale Knowles said she wanted to serve on the committee and felt she could serve out her term and handle the job.
However, Fred Knowles said he had miscalculated the amount of time his wife had in the retirement system. According to a letter he received from the Massachusetts's Teachers' Retirement System, Dale Knowles has more than 10 years amassed, and she is vested.
"She had 77 days as a permanent (substitute teacher) at Pentucket I didn't count, and they give her 10 years and seven days," Fred Knowles said last week. "We don't need to use the special provision that would use time on the School Committee for her retirement."
Dale Knowles, who nearly died during her battle with brain cancer over the past year, found herself back at Beth Israel Hospital within weeks of the election, Fred Knowles said, suffering from a severe urinary tract infection. Immunocompromised from monthly chemotherapy treatments, Dale Knowles has been unable to fight off the infection and remains in the hospital.
"Her organs are fine, her lungs and kidneys are OK, and she's doing a bit better. But this has still hit her very hard," Fred Knowles said.
Although sworn in as a School Committee member, Dale Knowles never made it to a meeting after the election.
"We had talked about her issues among ourselves, and our sympathies were with her," said Debbie Choate, a fellow Salisbury representative on the Triton School Committee. "What was difficult was not knowing what was happening. She never made a meeting."
Fred Knowles sent an e-mail alerting Triton School Committee Chairman Ed Mavragis of his wife's pending resignation, and Mavragis relayed the e-mail to his fellow committee members, Choate said. Salisbury Town Clerk Wilma McDonald also received the letter of resignation last week.
McDonald said filling the vacancy on the School Committee is covered in the Triton Regional School District Agreement. According to that document, any vacancy will be filled by the local Board of Selectmen and the remaining School Committee members from the town in which the vacancy occurs. The replacement will serve until the next scheduled election — in this case, May 2010 — at which time a candidate shall be elected to fill the remainder of the term, which will be two years.
Don Beaulieu, chairman of Salisbury's Board of Selectmen, said he's willing to call a special meeting of the board to fill the position promptly. Beaulieu said he might look to Salisbury resident Linda Litcofsky, who ran against Dale Knowles in the May election, as a possible replacement.
Lifcofsky, an electrical engineer with two children at Salisbury Elementary School, was the choice of Salisbury voters to represent the town on the Triton School Committee, getting 364 votes to Dale Knowles' 173 votes. It was voters in Newbury and Rowley who gave Dale Knowles her win when all votes were added together.
Fred Knowles offered his sincere thanks to Mavragis and School Committee Vice Chairman Frank Chiaravolloti.
"They were so supportive of Dale, offering to come over and bring her up to speed," Knowles said. "We're still hoping she'll recover enough for her to go back to teaching — she loves it so. It's teaching and her family that keep her motivated. Who knows, someday she may decide to run for the School Committee again."
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