Democratic Board of Ed candidate bios

From the Democrats' website -- www.bristoldemocrats.com/boardofed.html#ed2007 --

Barbara Y. Doyle

A former teacher of French and City-Wide Foreign Language Department Chair, Barbara Y. Doyle is completing her third term on the Bristol Board of Education. She served as Vice-Chair from 1997 to 2000 and has been the Board Chairperson for the last four years. She holds Bachelor, Master's and Sixth Year degrees in French, Math and Education.

Presently she is an ex-officio member of all the Board committees and also attends the meetings of the Parent Advisory Council. She was the Bristol Board representative to the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC) and was elected Chairman of the CREC Board of Directors in May of 2001.

Barbara recently achieved the level of Certificated Board of Education Member in the CABE Board Member Academy by earning the required credits in the areas of policy, curriculum, school finance, school law, labor relations and board operations.

As an active participant in many community activities , she is a past member of the Bristol Welfare Board and served as chair for the last 6 years of the appointment

A long time member and officer of the local and state teachers' union, she was a member of many committees in the education area on the local, state and national levels as well as serving as moderator and/or presenter at many conferences.

Both Barbara and her late husband, James G. Doyle, retired from teaching several years ago. They have four children and four grandchildren, one of whom attends Memorial Boulevard School.


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Julie M. Luczkow

Julie M. Luczkow, is currently serving a third term as a Board of Education Commissioner serving as the Vice-Chair.

Presently, she chairs the Student Achievement Committee and is a member of the FinanceCommittee and serves as an alternate member of the Operations Committee. During her time on the board, she has been a member or Chair of many of the Board’s sub-committees.

Julie has participated in many Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE) conferences and workshops and recently joined CABE’s Government Relations Committee. She has participated in the State Department of Education and CABE workshops on Leadership, Student Achievement, Education Finance Report, Closing the Achievement Gap, and the Board’s Role in Using Data-Driven Accountability System for Learning.

She holds an Associates Degree from Post University.

Her interests outside of the education arena include volunteering for Special Olympics Northwest Region Games held at Bristol Eastern, and volunteering at the Pan Mass Challenge (a fund raising event on behalf of the Dana-Farber Cancer Center in Massachusetts).

She is married to Edmund Luczkow, a 1972 graduate of Bristol Central High School.
They have a daughter Robyn who is a sophomore at Central Connecticut State University,majoring in Education. She also has a stepson who recently finished serving in the United States Air Force in Okinowa, Japan.


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Jane Anastasio

Jane has had a lifelong interest in education. The daughter of Bruce Elliott, a retired Bristol Central High Physics teacher, and Madelyn Elliott, a longtime former member of the Democratic Town Committee, Jane was raised in Bristol and attended Edgewood, Northeast, and Bristol Eastern High School . She is a graduate of UConn with a B.S. degree in Medical Technology and is currently employed at Hospital of Central Connecticut (BMH campus) in the laboratory. Her specialty is Hematology, blood disorders.

Jane was taught at an early age to give back to her community and she remembers working on campaigns stuffing envelopes as a child and spending many a cold November day handing out leaflets at the polls .

Jane has served on several boards for many years including the Zoning Commission, Mayor's Housing Coalition, Board of Ethics, Democratic Town Committee, Hubbell School PTO In 2002 she was appointed to the Board of Education and subsequently ran as a Board of Education candidate in the election of 2003 and has been on the Board since then. She has be a member of the Student Achievement Committee, the Communications and Community Relations Committee, and the Finance Committee..

Jane is married to John J. Anastasio, Jr. They have four sons; Mark, Paul, John, and Connor one of whom is presently a student at Chippens Hill Middle School.


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Tom O'Brien

Tom O'Brien grew up in Bristol. He graduated from Central High School and Boston College. After ten years with the Exxon Corporation, he returned to Bristol to work with his father at the O'Brien Funeral Home. Prior to 1991, he served for two years as the council liaison and ten years as a member of the Board of Education. In 2003 was elected to the Board and has served as the Chairman of the Personnel Committee and the Finance Committee as well as serving as an alternate to the Student Achievement Committee. He was appointed as the Chair of the Board’s Facilities Committee.

He has been married for 26 years to Marie Cassetta O'Brien. They have two sons, Chris, 24 and Matt, 23.


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Karen L. Vibert

Karen is a part-time free lance court stenographer who was born and raised in Bristol. She has been involved in many different activities in the Bristol Public School System to an extensive degree, including being a member of the Parent Advisory Council, commonly known as the PAC. That service strengthened her interest in education and desire to advocate for all children.

Active in many civic organizations, she currently is a member of the Bristol Kiwanis, Little League District 5, and the Forestville Village Association. Karen is a Girl Scout leader and consultant and teaches CCD at the Church of Saint Matthew. In recent years she has served on the Board of Directors of the Family Center and as a Cub Scout leader.

Karen was educated in Bristol and then attended St. Joseph College in West Hartford. She and her husband Marty have two children: Andy, a freshman at Bristol Eastern, and Millie, a fourth-grader at Mountain View


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Sherry Bouchard Turcotte


Sherry was born and raised in Bristol, attending Green-Hills, Northeast and Bristol Eastern High school graduating in 1983.

She has worked in the Bristol community for almost 25 years. Working at Bristol Hospital in the laboratory as a receptionist and phlebotomist, working as a receptionist for Dr. David Zomick for many years and is currently working for Dr. Doris Altherr in the same capacity.

On Tuesday afternoons she teaches CCD at St. Gregory's CCD Center where she enjoys teaching and learning from the children.

Sherry is active in her children’s activities, with Nutmeg Performing Arts Center and The Bristol Splash swim team.

Sherry and her husband Ghislain B. Turcotte moved back to Bristol in 1996 so that their children, Jacob and Morgan could attend The Bristol School System. Jacob is in 8th grade at Northeast Middle School and Morgan is in 4th grade at Edgewood School.


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Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com