New faces elected to Select Board and School Committee

Date: 6/15/2009

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



LONGMEADOW Approximately 18 percent of Longmeadow's registered voters made their voices heard during the annual town elections last Tuesday, keeping incumbent Paul Santaniello on the Select Board and ousting incumbent Kathleen Grady.

Santaniello and Rob Aseltine won the two three-year seats available on the Select Board; Mark Gold took the one-year seat. Tom Brunette defeated Tracy DeMarco to take a one-year seat on the School Committee. Candidates for moderator, the Housing Authority, the Planning Board and two three-year seats on the School Committee ran unopposed.

"I really appreciate what people did, coming out to vote," Santaniello said.

He noted that the biggest issue the Select Board is going to have to face over the next few years is the budget -- not just its composition but what changes in federal and state funding are going to do to the budgeting process.

"The federal stimulus package isn't going to make things much better," he said. "It's just replacing what was taken out with state aid cuts."

Santaniello said the town needs to develop a longer term debt strategy, and that over his next three years on the Select Board, he'd like to see some "tweaking" of the Town Charter.

"After five years, we're figuring out what's working and what's not working [with the charter]," he said.

Aseltine, who became a School Committee member in 2006, said he doesn't think there will be a big difference in what he will have to do now that he's a member of the Select Board.

"With the consolidation of town and school operations in several areas and the interdependence of many of our programs and services, the two boards need to be working together far more effectively than we have been," Aseltine said. "I remain hopeful that my experience with the schools will help to bridge the divide and create a strong partnership between the two committees."

Aseltine said the most prominent issue the Select Board needs to focus on, aside from the budget, is determining the future of the high school.

"We need to do something with this facility," he stated, "and creating a long term solution that makes sense to residents and is feasible financially will be a critical task in the coming year."

Santaniello and Aseltine beat out Grady and Roy Johansen, a member of the Planning Board, for seats on the Select Board. Gold, currently a member of the Capital Planning Committee, defeated challenger Steve Kennedy.

Brunette, a teacher in the Springfield Public Schools, said he was grateful to all the residents who voted for him and that even though becoming a member of the School Committee is going to be hard work, he's looking forward to doing it.

"I'm going to dive in and get involved with the subcommittees," Brunette said. "I'm going to help think of creative ways to spread the money around, and I want to keep it close to the classrooms."