The Farmington school board will swear in one of its most vocal critics on Monday. On Tuesday, the Lakeville school board will do, well, pretty much the same thing.

When Farmington's Tim Burke and Bob Erickson of Lakeville take their oaths of office, they'll join boards they have been following as watchdogs for more than a year.

Their résumés as new school board members contain striking similarities. Both are outspoken fiscal conservatives who were drawn to board meetings because of issues they opposed. Both kept showing up after the votes, racking up formidable attendance records and peppering officials with e-mails asking for public documents that they spent hours dissecting. Both built their campaigns on calls for more transparency and fiscal accountability.

The two men barely know each other, but "I think we're kindred spirits," said Burke, a hospital public relations manager.

Erickson, a former city administrator in Lakeville, disagreed. He pointed out that he and Burke have tackled different school issues and characterized himself as less extreme in his fiscal positions.

But regardless of their differences, Burke and Erickson will bring distinctive -- and often blunt -- voices to the discussion as their districts grapple with tough issues this spring. Both districts, like many in Minnesota, face budget shortfalls for next year, with Lakeville coming up against $6 million in cuts for 2009-10. Farmington is getting ready to open a new high school next fall while defending itself from a lawsuit filed in November by its architect.

And both men will serve with some board members who have reacted to their engagement with varying degrees of frustration or disapproval.

"Tense would be an understatement" for the relationship between Burke and the Farmington school board, said board chairwoman Julie McKnight.

"He has a history of throwing up a lot of questions and issues, but does not provide solutions to go along with those," she said. "My assumption is that that will be different when he's on the board."

Burke, 54, started going to school board meetings when he led a successful campaign in 2007 against a $24 million sports complex that the Farmington district asked voters to fund as an addition to its new high school. Since then, he has raised questions about bonds, contracts, the appointment of a new board member and more, broadcasting his thoughts on the Internet and in sometimes-confrontational e-mails to supporters, school officials and reporters.

Burke admits that not all of his research has uncovered problems, but on occasion, his efforts have had results. In August, for example, the Minnesota Department of Administration ruled that Burke was entitled to an uncensored copy of the Farmington superintendent's contract, a document the district had denied him.

But McKnight expressed frustration at what she characterized as inaccurate or slanted information put out by Burke about topics ranging from state statutes to student test scores. "He's got a good mechanism for communication, and a lot of people listen to him, and a lot of people make decisions based on his information," she said.

Burke pledged to remain outspoken as an elected official. "I will ask a lot of questions in public that I think people would prefer that I asked in private," he said.

Give and take

Erickson, 63, served as city administrator from 1989 to 2004, a period marked by fast growth and development that sometimes sparked heated debate. Erickson's service in local government taught him the importance of transparency and encouraging public feedback, he said. "I know what the community expected of me as a public servant, and hopefully I can bring some of those strategies to our deliberations."

He started attending school board meetings regularly in the fall of 2007, volunteering with a group that campaigned against three levy questions posed to voters by the district. Two of them failed.

Erickson said he has made brief statements at nearly every school board meeting in the past 14 months, lauding some district moves while criticizing others. For instance, he has taken issue with the way the district has handled work on athletic fields at Lakeville North High School, including the board's decision to pay for new artificial turf.

His comments and questions often led board chairwoman Judy Keliher to clarify the board's position publicly, she said. "It's difficult enough to communicate to the community," she said. "I think that we just want to make sure that misinformation doesn't happen at the time of public comments."

After his election, he made a point of touring local schools and brought 17 pages of ideas to a board meeting about budget cuts last week. At his first meeting as a board member, "He was trying to get me removed from a committee, and then half an hour later complimented me for something else," said board member Jim Skelly. "If you feel like you're being attacked one minute, you could be praised the next."

Board members in both districts said they hope to find a way to work together.

"Bob's gonna be Bob," Skelly said. "As a board member, I don't want to be in a situation where we're trying to change him or his approach, but by the same token, he's a member of the board, so he's going to have to adapt to us, too."

"I just think it will be slower," said McKnight of how business might flow with Burke on the board. "There will be more conversation, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing."

Sarah Lemagie • 952-882-9016