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Date: 9/28/2022
WEST SPRINGFIELD — Former Town Councilor Robert “Bean” Mancini was sworn in as the newest member of the West Springfield School Committee on Sept. 19. He replaces former committee member William Garvey, who is moving to Vermont.
Mancini is a regional manager at West Net, a distributor of lab and medical equipment, and a former semi-pro boxer. He was automatically offered the chance to complete Garvey’s unfinished term because he was the runner-up in the most recent School Committee election, receiving 1,463 votes for seventh place in an eight-way race. Mancini finished with 325 fewer votes than fellow challenger Kira Thompson, who took the sixth seat, and 654 votes behind Garvey, who finished third.
Garvey served on the School Committee for six years until his resignation earlier this month. He had participated in the Sept. 13 committee meeting, just days before being replaced. He had told his colleagues and other town officials previously that he planned to sell his house and move to Vermont, according to School Committee member Diana Coyne.
A representative from Sims Medical Center at Springfield Technical Community College told Reminder Publishing that Garvey had retired from his job there several months ago. In an email to Mayor William Reichelt, Garvey wrote, “As you are aware, I plan to move out of state in the coming months. I find it evident that my effectiveness as a committee member at present is negligible at best, and therefore feel it is best to step away now.”
Garvey did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
“I really appreciate the work Garvey did on the School Committee, as well as the West Springfield [High] School Council when I was the principal there,” said interim Superintendent Vito Perrone.
As West Springfield schools adapted to the coronavirus pandemic, Garvey became the School Committee’s staunchest advocate of retaining public health precautions such as remote learning, social distancing, masking and testing. His vocal support of these policies, though never out of step with the majority view of the School Committee as a whole, made him a lightning rod for criticism from some parents.
“Certainly, the politicized nature of those decisions put all School Committee members in the crosshairs,” said Perrone, who sat with the School Committee as assistant superintendent at the time. Perrone applauded the work of both Garvey and his colleagues during the worst of the pandemic, saying they stood resolute in their decision making “based on what was best for students, teachers and the community at large, trolls and partisan politics be damned.”
During the campaign for the November 2021 election, Mancini said remote learning hadn’t worked for many students, and said he wanted to see the schools offer more in-person options, though he did not harshly criticize the incumbent School Committee members in his statements to the press. After the election, Mancini praised the School Committee members who were elected as “great people.”
Mancini said he plans to do things differently than Garvey during his tenure. His first plan: to begin hosting “office hours,” during which parents of students can come speak with him about any questions or concerns they have about the West Side school system.