Denise Burns is not running for reelection to the School Committee because she expects to move to to Maine.

As she drops out of the School Committee race for the April Town Election, and as the other incumbent, Ron Spangler, has declined to run, two seats are now wide open to a field of five. They are Kirsi C. Allison-Ampe, Teresa Bottoni, Kurt Fusaris, Kenneth W. Hughes and Judson L. Pierce.

To Burns's surprise, Kevin Greeley, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, broke the news Monday night. "Arlington will be less without her," he said.

Adding his usual humorous twist, Greeley said, "She's been wrong a lot."

Burns immediately responded: "I've never been wrong."

After the meeting, Burns said she is buying a home in Kennebunk, Maine. The closing is set for the end of March.

An editor for HP, she said she is not making a job change, because she can work at home.

Asked Feb. 24 why she did not announce earlier that she would not be running, Burns wrote: "I wasn't certain I wasn't going to be running until recently."

Burns took out nomination papers Dec. 10, but did not respond to requests for comment about a potential run.

Asked for a statement about not seeking reelection, she wrote: "I will certainly share with you any statement I might make."

In response to a discussion of the latest proposed budget, presented by Chief Financial Officer Diane Fisk Johnson at the Feb. 23 School Committee meeting, Burns said she thought $200,000 budgeted for legal fees for special education was too much. She objected to paying lawyers because special-education administrators were not returning calls to parents.

On another legal matter, she noted that the three-year contract with the schools' law firm -- Stoneman, Chandler & Miller, LLC, of Boston -- ends May 22. She said she would no longer be on the committee then, but urged the board to seek several proposals from several law firms. 

Later, during the roundtable, she said, "I'm very happy to buy a house in Maine."

She urged that members of the committee after she leaves "ask the questions they have to ask."

She and the current chairman, Joseph Curran, have consistently voted together on issues related to fired employees Stavroula Bouris and Charles Coughlin, who this month filed a $7 million lawsuit contending they were wrongfully dismissed in 2007.

In October 2008, she walked out of a committee meeting that she chaired, declaring lack of support.

After a June 2009 meeting, she declined to attend a number of the committee's executive sessions.

On other issues, Burns has been a proponent of the School Committee's investigating the possibility of regional services.

This story was first published Monday, Feb. 22, 2010, and updated a number of times after that.