Beverly Joint Council Unanimously Appoints McKenzie to Ward 2 School Committee

BEVERLY — December 17, 2020 — Beverly's joint City Council and School Committee unanimously appointed Dr. Canaan McKenzie to fill the vacant Ward 2 School Committee seat at a remote joint meeting Thursday, December 17. School Committee President Rachel Abel oversaw the process, which drew seven expressions of interest from Ward 2 residents and produced three formal candidates: educator Georgia Bills, special education teacher and union leader William Carviniaris, and McKenzie, a former building administrator and state-level racial imbalance committee member. School Committee member Fern Vesnick made the motion to appoint McKenzie, citing both a committee-wide diversity and inclusion resolution and McKenzie's qualifications; the 16-0 roll call included every councilor and committee member present, with City Council President Paul Guanci deferring to what he called unanimous school committee sentiment. McKenzie takes the seat January 1, 2021, just as the committee faces what Abel described as "the most challenging school budget to date." The meeting also received a COVID-19 update from Public Health Director William Burke III, who reported Beverly's 14-day positivity rate had risen to 4.67 percent — up from 1.98 percent two weeks prior — with a daily incident rate of 56.5 per 100,000 residents.