PORTSMOUTH — Terri Cortvriend isn’t ready to concede her seat on the School Committee.

Cortvriend, who has served four years on the committee, is launching a write-in campaign against two fellow Democrats who won a primary campaign this month and faced no opposition in November’s general election — until now.

Cortvriend says she is appalled by some of the things said by the pair, Angela Volpicelli and Marilyn King, whose statements appear to be at odds with the other endorsed member of the slate, committee Chairwoman Sylvia Wedge.

In Cortvriend’s view, Volpicelli and King have offered opinions without researching the facts.

Volpicelli, a registered nurse, and King, a special-education teacher, were tied with 669 votes each as the top vote-getters for School Committee in the Democratic primary. Wedge had 668 votes and Cortvriend came in fourth, 31 points behind Wedge.

Wedge has thrown her support behind Cortvriend, as has another Democratic incumbent on the School Committee who is not running for reelection this year, Marjorie Levesque.

Cortvriend said in a statement, “The present Portsmouth School Committee has rebuilt the financial foundation of the school department, has fought for every classroom dollar, and is delivering the best value for each education dollar in Rhode Island.”

King and Volpicelli have roundly criticized the incumbent committee’s decision to sue the town to recover funds cut by a special Financial Town Meeting in 2006, among other things.

But Cortvriend said the two candidates have mischaracterized budgetary matters.

In addition, she said, they have suggested closing the Elmhurst Elementary School “without true factual details.”

Cortvriend said King and Volpicelli received endorsements in time to have attended a number of important committee meetings, including one detailing the results of a performance audit which reaffirmed the leadership of the committee and Schools Supt. Susan F. Lusi.

Additional meetings dealt with engineering studies concerning the Elmhurst school and other buildings, as well as the preparation of the current budget, she said.

Volpicelli attended only one budget session late in the process, Cortvriend said.

Volpicelli and King have said Lusi got too much money in a new three-year contract while some teachers got shortchanged in a one-year rollover of their labor agreement with the town.

They also have said Lusi and other administrators could have done the work of consultants hired over the last few years, but Wedge and Cortvriend have strongly disagreed.

As a first-time candidate in 2004, Cortvriend said, she attended all committee meetings and workshops and educated herself on the issues.

The chairman of the Democratic Town Committee, Leonard B. Katzman, has said he is proud of his party’s endorsed candidates for School Committee.

Democrats historically have found ways to work together, even when there have been differences among them, Katzman said.

He also has gone so far as to say that the party would have endorsed Cortvriend had she been able to meet the committee’s deadline for making a commitment.

But at the time, Cortvriend was wrestling with the bread-and-butter issue of whether she could continue to run the family business after the death of her partner and husband, Andy.

Cortvriend said she will hold a news conference tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. at the playground on Turnpike Avenue to announce additional endorsements.

She said she also hopes to produce campaign brochures with instructions showing voters how to write in her name and connect the two halves of an adjacent arrow.

Cortvriend said she recognizes that a write-in candidacy is a Hurculean task.

Cortvriend said she was the top vote-getter in the race for School Committee in 2004 .

She said she does not feel that the Democratic primary reflected the support she has among Republicans and independents.

Cortvriend owns Ocean Link, which specializes in plumbing and air conditioning for boats.

She has served as a School Committee negotiator with the teachers union, has been instrumental in the completion of the new gym at the high school, and served on the search committee which hired Lusi, the superintendent, in 2005.

gmacris@projo.com