Burke thanks meeting-goers for support

WOONSOCKET – If he had been running as a candidate for an elected position in public office, Donald Burke would have have offered a pretty good campaign announcement while speaking in Historic Harris Hall Monday night. But Burke wasn’t talking about his campaign on President’s Day, as President Abraham Lincoln himself had done in Harris Hall back in March of 1860, Burke went to thank the people who have been supporting his hopes of gaining reappointment to the Woonsocket School Committee. Burke is in the middle of a power struggle between Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, who chose a new appointee for his seat after his own three-year appointment from the mayor expired last November, and the members of the City Council who have called for him to stay on the panel. And so on Monday, Burke took the podium during the Council’s public comment period to make his own public appeal to keep his school post. “I am the husband of the lovely Molly Champagne and up till two months ago I was the vice chairman of the very successful Woonsocket School Committee,” Burke said in his opening line. “But tonight, after two months, ironically I can say that I am the luckiest man in Woonsocket. “I am the most blessed person in this city and I come here tonight to say thank you to all who have been with me and I hope will continue to be with and for me,” Burke continued. “I am filled with tremendous gratitude for all of the support and encouragement that I have received these two months and it is time for me to come here and acknowledge these efforts of so many people,” the former committee member said. Burke related how he had asked Baldelli-Hunt on Nov. 21 to re-appoint him to his seat and noted that as it turned out the one person I asked for support did not support me.” In the weeks since, Burke said he has received the support of “so many other people,” and listed that support as his reason for going to the meeting. “First of all I want to thank the members of the City Council, especially Councilman Cournoyer, Council President Gendron, Councilor Brien, Councilor Fagnant, for their encouraging words personally to me and their supportive comments in the media and also at these meetings,” he said. “I want to thank my fellow colleagues on the School Committee who argued on my behalf to be re-appointed, Chairman Soren Seale, Susan Pawlina and Valerie Gonzalez, but most especially I want to thank my friend Paul Bourget for his passionate support and his supportive friendship during these days,” Burke said. “You know as I stand at this podium right now, I think about all the people that I have seen come up here over the last two months, and stand up here meeting after meeting and express their support for me. Many of them don’t even know me, they knew of me, but they didn’t know me personally and many of them I did not know. But standing here tonight I want to say thank you to all of those people that have come up and here and supported my re-appointment,” Burke said. Burke has become the focus of a Change.org online petition created by city resident Brenda Gavin that as of Monday night had 104 signatures calling on Baldelli-Hunt to reappoint him to the committee and noted that in his remarks as well. “When I heard about an online petition, I was so surprised but touched with such great admiration and humility,” he said. Burke said if he was on Facebook, which he is not, he would “friend” all of the people involved in the petition. “I also want to thank the administration, the principals and the teachers and the parents and the students that have expressed support for me. Their words of encouragement have given me strength since obviously not being reappointed is disappointing and frus- trating,” he said. “I want to thank them for acknowledging that I did a good job in my three years on the School Committee,” he said in keeping with a tradition for candidates to note support of their accomplishments, and also thanked the members of his church, St. Charles Borromeo, for their support and prayers. He offered a final thanks to his own students at Bridgewater-Raynham High School, who he said “have lived these last, what I was call these last two Woonsocket months, with me. And I have to say they are not happy with the way the mayor has treated their Mr. Burke,” he said. “I came tonight in gratitude for all the good things that others have said about me. It was time for me to come here and say thanks. But one final comment. I know the School Committee is still seeking a fifth member, well I stand here before you, once more to say I am still willing, ready and able to serve students of Woonsocket,” Burke said. Although the members of the City Council and Baldelli-Hunt, seated just in front of the podium, listened to Burke’s comments, there was no appointment ratification listed on the agenda for last night’s meeting. The committee had formerly been a longtime elected body in Woonsocket until a charter change made the panel appointed by the mayor with concurrence of the council, a mo te to the process of filling committee seats. Other members of the audience also took the podium to air their concerns over the lack of an appointment again and even to complement the fourth member of the panel, Steven Lima, who took his seat last week after the two sides reached agreement at least on one of the two available vacancies. John Reynolds Jr. also noted the growing petition calling for Burke’s appointment. “How many polls and petitions is it going to take before you get the message?” Reynolds asked Baldelli-Hunt.