School Committee candidates, from top: Whitehouse, Burrows and Kallfelz.

JAMESTOWN — On Nov. 6, just two weeks from today, voters will elect two School Committee members from a three-candidate field.

The field includes two Democrats and one Republican. It also includes one incumbent and two challengers. Board member David Dolce, appointed to fill the seat held by the late James Filkins, is not running for a second term.

The three candidates agree Jamestown needs to be wise about making sure that money and resources are put to the best use and result in a quality education.

There is also agreement about the challenge a small town such as Jamestown faces in meeting state and federal mandates as state aid dwindles and the town faces a tighter state cap on tax levy increases.

But the candidates also bring distinctive views and experiences to this year’s election, in which voters will also elect five people to Town Council and elect a town moderator, a post for which incumbent Democrat James A. Donnelly is running unopposed.

Each of the School Committee seats comes with a four-year term.

The School Committee candidates:

• MELISSA W. BURROWS, a Republican, is a fourth-generation Jamestown resident who is making her first run for public office.

Burrows says she is running because she wants to help the town maintain an excellent school system and provide a voice for townspeople on the School Committee.

She describes herself as a people person who is easy to approach.

“I’m your basic person, if you will,” she says.

“I’m not moneyed or statused. I’m just me.”

Burrows says one of the key challenges for the Jamestown schools is to continue balancing the needs of regular education and special-education students without sacrificing one group for the other. Placing special-education students in regular education classes is an important step and often helps all students, she said, because the regular education students learn to act as role models, helping the learning process for special-education students.

Burrows also wants Jamestown to have more say in decisions affecting North Kingstown High School, where Jamestown sends its high school students. She did not have a definitive solution and acknowledged that there are logistical issues — many decisions made by the North Kingstown School Committee affect more than the high school — but she said she wants to see what can be done. At present, Jamestown is allowed to send a nonvoting representative to North Kingstown’s School Committee meetings.

“I would like to see some way that we could have a voice,” she said.

Burrows, 42, is married and has two children in the school system — Jessica, 16, who attends North Kingstown High School; and Andrew, 13, an eighth-grader at the Lawn Avenue School. Both are autistic, which accounts for her interest in special education, but Burrows said her goal is to make sure the schools meet the needs of all children.

Burrows works at home, repairing computers and providing technical support for computer users. She graduated from North Kingstown High School and has taken computer courses at the Community College of Rhode Island.

She decided to run, she said, after she was asked by a member of the Republican Town Committee.

“Somebody has to do it,” she said.

• JULIE KALLFELZ, a Democrat, is seeking her second four-year term.

Kallfelz says the biggest challenges for Jamestown’s schools involve money and the system’s small size, which makes it harder to meet state and federal mandates and deal with fluctuations in the student population.

She said Jamestown has taken steps to make the best use of its resources, opting for full-time principals at its elementary and middle schools and a part-time superintendent. School Committee members believe the move will provide the best use of district resources while providing building-level leadership that encourages higher student performance.

The committee also approved a new teachers contract that takes the town’s financial limitations into account, she said. The contract provides cumulative raises of 10.3 percent over three years, which will cost about $100,000 during the current school year, but it also is expected to save about $20,000 by establishing higher “co-pays” for doctor visits.

In another step, Kallfelz said, Jamestown has integrated special-education students into the regular classroom “to the greatest degree possible,” providing educational benefits and cost savings.

In all of this, she said Jamestown has strived to improve education while being fiscally responsible. Annual budget increases in recent years have been below the current 5¼ percent state cap on tax levy increases, she said.

If reelected, Kallfelz says, she will continue to push for an excellent education and a “strong return” for town taxpayers.

Kallfelz, 40, is married and has two daughters, one in fifth grade at the Lawn Avenue School and one in third grade at the Melrose School. She has a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, where she pursued a dual major in Soviet studies and Russian. She also served in the Navy, reaching the rank of lieutenant.

Kallfelz runs her own business from home, providing marketing and recruiting assistance to companies in Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts. The marketing efforts include Web sites and brochures, and the recruiting includes general hiring and as well as searches for the right people to fill specific positions, she said.

• BRUCE J. WHITEHOUSE, a Democrat, has been teaching music in public schools for 22 years — 4 on Block Island and the last 18 in Little Compton, where he teaches kindergarten through grade 8.

In this, his first run for public office, Whitehouse says the number-one issue facing Jamestown’s schools is making ends meet.

The combination of level-funded state aid, the new state cap on local tax levy increases and state and federal mandates for local schools has created a “perfect storm and at the center of the storm is the kids,” he said.

One step Whitehouse said he would take is lobbying the town’s representatives in the General Assembly for more state aid. He would try to meet with Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed to ask her about the state’s previously stated commitment to share the cost of local education.

“Further action on my part depends upon the substance of her answer,” he said.

Whitehouse says another key issue for the town’s schools is making sure students are being challenged “to a high degree.”

While state-sponsored reports on the town’s schools indicate that students are indeed being challenged, Whitehouse says that feedback from some people suggests that is not the case. He said it may simply be a case of him listening to the “squeaky wheels,” but his experience as an educator leads him to believe that schools often do not challenge children enough.

“I want to make sure that anybody who looks at the schools with any kind of scrutiny will say yes, the kids are being challenged,” he said.

Whitehouse said his years as a teacher on Block Island and in Little Compton have shown him that what worked in the past doesn’t always work today.

“When I was in school we didn’t try to educate every person to the extent that we’re [now] trying to educate them,” he said. “It’s different, and so we need different solutions.”

Whitehouse, 52, said he has lived in Jamestown since 1989. He is married and has a master’s degree in teaching from Rhode Island College.

Whitehouse said he was asked to run by the Democratic Town Committee. The request resonated, he said, because his father was involved in local politics in Ohio and told him that everybody needs to take a turn.

redgar@projo.com