PEABODY — School Committee member Beverley Griffin Dunne has been nominated to be president-elect of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC).
Griffin Dunne first became involved with the MASC when she joined the Peabody School Committee in 2004. Since then, she has served every year as the Peabody Delegate to the MASC Delegate Assembly.
Griffin Dunne became the chairperson of Division I in 2017. She then took on the executive board role of secretary-treasurer in 2024. She currently sits on the MASC Board of Directors as vice president, so being the 2026 president-elect is the natural next step for Griffin Dunne. This next step would set her up to be the MASC’s president in 2027.
“I just don’t want to give up on public education,” Griffin Dunne said when asked why she has dedicated two decades to the MASC. “I want to make sure that it’s available to everybody and that we provide the best education possible to all of our children.”
Griffin Dunne said she has been interested in bettering the education system since she was a student at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School, where she served on the very first student advisory council in Massachusetts in the early ’70s.
“That was where I really started with my interest in education, and at that time, I thought about becoming a teacher, but I really wanted to be a lawyer,” Griffin Dunne said. “I’ve always respected education. I was really lucky to have an excellent education growing up, and I’ve always felt you should give back to the community.”
She said her work on the MASC’s Executive Board has allowed her to see “a much broader picture of education” when considering issues specific to the Peabody School Committee. She said being able to “see things from a higher level” allows her to gain insight from other communities across the state, which has been “very, very helpful.”
The official decision regarding filling the roles of president-elect, vice president and secretary-treasurer for 2026 will happen at the MASC’s Delegate Assembly on Nov. 14. Given that there are no other nominees for president-elect, Griffin Dunne hopes the role will be hers.
