Stacey Rizzo, Susan Gravellese Re-Elected to School Committee Leadership Positions

Revere School Committee Vice Chair Stacey Rizzo and Secretary Susan Gravellese were re-elected unanimously to their leadership positions on the board at the 2023 organizational meeting.

As Mayor of Revere, Brian Arrigo will be the chairperson of the School Committee.

The Revere School Committee, from left to right, John Kingston, Aisha Milbury-Ellis, Stacey Rizzo, Mayor Brian Arrigo, Carol Tye, Susan Gravellese and Michael Ferrante.

Rizzo was elected for the third time as vice chair. The third-longest serving member of the Committee with 14 years of service, Carol Tye (23rd year), and Michael Ferrante (18th year), are first and second in length of service), Rizzo is also the president of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. Gravellese was elected to her second term as secretary.

Favors New High School at Wonderland Property

Rizzo said she and her colleagues are closely following the progress of the new Revere High School project that has been proposed for the site of the former Wonderland Greyhound Park on VFW Parkway.

“Everyone thinks it’s so easy to just build the new school at the original site (101 School St.), but it’s going to cost the same as it would at Wonderland, and then we would have to take down the current high school building,” said Rizzo. “The plan that we were open to is to put all the middle school students (from the Garfield, Rumney, and Susan B. Anthony Schools) at one school, and we could open up the other schools for elementary, because we are at capacity. I absolutely favor the new high school being built at Wonderland.”

Will Run for Re-Election to the Board This Fall

 Rizzo said she will be a candidate for re-election to the School Committee this fall. She is waiting for a decision by the state legislature about the change in the city charter that has been proposed. The city is seeking to implement a format where six members would be elected to represent the six wards in the city, and two members would be elected at-large, for a nine-member committee (including the mayor as the committee chair). Currently, all candidates run for six citywide (at-large) seats.

Rizzo spoke candidly about whether she would run for a ward seat or an at-large seat if the change in membership is approved.

“I recently moved to Ward 5 from Ward 4, so it’s not an area that I’ve lived in, that people know or I know my neighbors,” said Rizzo. “[School Committeewoman] Aisha Milbury-Ellis is a Ward 5 resident and has been living here most of her life. And she also does a very good on the School Committee, so I don’t want to run against someone who is already doing a very good job. Aisha has a great vision for our schools and does her homework. So, I would run at-large.”

Rizzo said one of her goals is to educate voters about what the actual responsibilities of the School Committee are. She also hopes to see an increase in the number of candidates running for School Committee in the 2023 election.

“I’m hoping with the change to a ward-by-ward membership, we can get some different faces running for School Committee,” said Rizzo. Stacey Rizzo and her husband, John Rizzo, have three sons Adam is a teacher at the Susan B. Anthony School. Their son, Nick, was a biology teacher at Revere High School, but has changed his career field. Another son, Jonathan, works in sales for solar panels. All three sons and their spouses proudly attended a recent Massachusetts Association of School Committees dinner at the Wharf in honor of Stacey Rizzo’s election as the new president of the organization.

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