Two candidates to be interviewed for open School Committee seat

Date: 12/5/2011

Dec. 5, 2011

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

LONGMEADOW — Only two candidates have submitted their names for consideration for the open School Committee seat, which was vacated by Armand Wray in early November.

The School Committee and Select Board will interview Gerard Kiernan and Kathryn Girard jointly on Dec. 5. In accordance with state law, the person awarded the seat will not be announced until Dec. 12.

The interview process is the same as the one used to fill the seats of Gwendolyn Bruns and Thomas Brunette, both of whom resigned earlier this year.

Kiernan interviewed unsuccessfully for both Bruns’ and Brunette’s positions. James Desrochers and Owen Humphries defeated Kiernan, among other candidates, for the two seats.

Jennifer Jester, chair of the School Committee, told Reminder Publications after Wray’s resignation that having gone through this process recently should make it easier this time around.

“We spent a lot of time determining how to implement this process and while it’s unfortunate we have to do it again so soon, at least we know our procedures and hopefully this will move along expeditiously,” she said.

Interviews are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. in the Longmeadow Police Department’s conference room.

With the interviews approaching, Michael Clark took the opportunity to shoot down a rumor circulating that he was planning on resigning from the School Committee to assume the position of assistant town manager in Duxbury.

“I fully intend to serve out my term in Longmeadow,” he said.