Meredith McGuire was a governor at Bessie Street School and a woman who the school's headmaster Brian Packham was afraid of. After a difficult meeting with the chair of the school governors in January 2012, Brian was told to improve the school's results within three months or he would be out of a job. This led to Brian coming up with a healthy eating regime at the school alongside the introduction of other new rules being set up.
In July, Brian called Meredith to meet him after receiving a report that pupil Faye Windass was being bullied, and revealed to a shocked Meredith that it was her granddaughter Lindsay Hayward and her friends that were responsible. Meredith made Lindsay apologise to Faye before revealing that she would personally make sure that Lindsay would be punished for her actions, leading to a two-day suspension.
When Meredith passed away suddenly in September 2012, ex-teacher Ken Barlow successfully applied for the now-vacant position as chair of governors.