by Marty Green ·
Friday, July 22, 2016
Six residents volunteered to fill the vacancy on the School Committee created by Jennifer Bedford’s plan to resign at the end of this month. 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, School Committee veteran Patricia Wenger, to fill the vacancy.
Wenger recently served two three-year terms on the School Committee before stepping down in 2014. Her experience seemed to be a determining factor in her appointment, with School Committee Chairwoman SusanMary Redinger saying that it would be helpful to have someone who was already up to speed on school issues.
Selectman Ron Ricci nominated Wenger to fill the vacancy, 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.(School Committee member Nancy Lancellotti was absent.) In a later phone conversation, Wallace said the group had passed up an opportunity to involve a new volunteer in town government.
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.
Superintendent Linda 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, spreading word of the vacancy and the need for a volunteer to step forward.