Education group to hold awards dinner tonight

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent

The Arlington Education Foundation will honor education activist and former school committee member Janice Bakey at a fundraiser Monday.

Bakey is being honored for her years of championing educational initiatives as the founder of the Arlington Education Enrichment Fund in 1990 and serving on the Arlington School Committee and other town committees, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Committee, according to the Foundation.

“After many years of dedicated service as a member of the Arlington School Committee, Janice Bakey could have enjoyed a long period of much-deserved rest,” said School Committee Chairman Joseph Curro in a Foundation press release this week. “Instead, Janice chose to remain engaged, and she has continued to serve as a mentor to subsequent school leaders, and unflagging supporter of the Arlington public schools, and a tireless activist, who has made our town a more welcoming place for all.”

The Foundation will also release $14,600 in grant money for local teachers and learning projects at the annual fundraiser, which will be held at Tryst Restaurant at 689 Massachusetts Avenue from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday.

The fundraiser is open to the community and reservations can be made online at http://www.arlingtoneducationfoundation.org/rsvp.html.