At its Monday meeting this week, the School Committee bade farewell to departing member Jennifer Bedford and welcomed Patricia Wenger, who was appointed in July to fill the vacancy created by Bedford’s resignation. Wenger will serve until the next Town Election in spring 2017.
Describing Bedford as “unassuming and very generous,” Chairwoman SusanMary Redinger said Bedford had made a bigger contribution to the board’s work than the public knew, through her work behind the scenes and her ability to stay focused on the central point of an issue. Superintendent Linda Dwight spoke of Bedford’s passion for education and called her “a kindred spirit” in her concern for students. Bedford served on the committee for two years and resigned because she is moving with her family to Maryland.
Redinger expressed gratitude for the experience Wenger brings to the board, on which she previously served for seven years before stepping down in 2014. “She will help me get this relatively new board up to speed,” Redinger said, a point she had also made at the time Wenger was officially selected from among a group of applicants last month.
Wenger appointed by joint vote
Six residents volunteered in July to fill the School Committee vacancy. Of those candidates, five were new to town government and had children currently in the Harvard school system. On July 11, however, the selectmen and the School Committee—in a joint meeting—voted to appoint the sixth volunteer, School Committee veteran Wenger, to fill the vacancy.
Selectman Ron Ricci nominated Wenger, and the two boards approved her appointment in a 6–3 vote. Selectmen Ricci, Alice von Loesecke, and Ken Swanton (participating by phone) voted in favor, along with School Committee members Redinger, Bedford, and Mary Traphagen. Opposed were School Committee member Jon Green and selectmen Stu Sklar and Lucy Wallace. In a later phone conversation, Wallace said the boards had passed up an opportunity to involve a new volunteer in town government.
Dwight said she was “nicely surprised” by the number of people who expressed interest in the School Committee position. She attributed the response to better communication with the community about the opening.
In response to a question before the vote, Wenger said she plans to serve on the committee only until next spring and does not intend to run for a longer term in Town Election. At this week’s meeting, she commented, “There’s something to be said for having someone who does not have kids in the system on the school board. It brings a different perspective.”
New dean, interim business manager
Also added to the schools’ administrative team in July and introduced to the School Committee at Monday’s meeting were Julie Horton, Bromfield’s dean of students, and Peter C. Rowe, the new interim school business manager.
Horton, who holds a Ph.D. and has taught mathematics at Bromfield for 13 years, will continue to teach advanced placement statistics while also filling the newly created dean’s position. In past years, she has also supervised the student trip to Washington, D.C., and served as Student Council adviser and class adviser. Horton’s appointment completes the new administrative team for Bromfield, with Scott Hoffman at the helm as principal and Robin Benoit, who was hired in June, as associate principal.
Rowe comes to the Harvard school district as business manager after retiring from a 12-year stint as Brookline’s deputy superintendent of administration and finance. Before that, he worked in the Boston school system from 1974 to 1993, beginning as a teacher and finishing as deputy superintendent of management services.
The half-time business manager’s position will last at least until Harvard hires a new finance director, Dwight said. But, she added, if the town does not find someone who is experienced with both town and school finances, the schools might continue with a separate, part-time business manager.
