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School Committee vacancies to be filled Oct. 3

Date: 9/27/2011

Sept. 26, 2011

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

LONGMEADOW — Concluding a process that first began on June 27, the School Committee and the Select Board will meet in a joint session to choose two new members of the School Committee.

The two boards will convene on Oct. 3 to vote for whom of the eight candidates will fill the two seats left vacant by the resignations filed by Thomas Brunette and Gwendolyn Bruns after conducting interviews or both positions on Sept. 12.

Brunette resigned on June 27, citing personal and added work responsibilities as his reasons. Bruns’ resignation was submitted in August, as her husband’s company transferred him out of the state.

James Cass, Daniel Zwirko, Jeremy Powers, Gerald Keirnan and Owen Humphries Jr. all applied for Brunette’s seat. Zwirko, Powers, Keirnan and Humphries, in addition to Hal Ektin, James Desrochers and Diane Nadeau, also threw their hats into the ring for Bruns’ seat.

In a time when Longmeadow is seeking volunteers to fill at least one vacancy for 11 different committees, School Committee Chair Jennifer Jester said she has been pleased with the interest in the School Committee.

“I am absolutely encouraged by the interest. I’m excited by the fact that we had five candidates for the first position and seven for the second,” she said. “The reason the interviews took so long was because we had so many candidates.”

Addressing potential concerns about the fact that the positions are being appointed, rather than voted upon, Jester stressed that everything that is being done is in full accordance with Massachusetts General Law.

“According to the law, the two boards always have to do this together and there always has to be open interviews,” she said. “We always have to wait one week and not more than 28 days in order to get a vote done. The law says this is the way it has to be done.”

Jester added that this is the process that has always been used to fill such a vacancy on the committee.

“The only difference this year is the procedures have been fleshed out,” she said. “[Select Board Chair] Mark Gold suggested, and the School Committee agreed upon, specific procedures on how we would go about this process.”

The appointments are only in effect until June 2012 when the town will be asked to vote for two candidates who will sit on the committee for abbreviated terms. The candidate elected to Brunette’s seat would serve a one-year term, while the person to fill Bruns’ would serve for two years.



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