EASTHAMPTON — The City Council and School Committee will jointly decide who will replace the two School Committee seats vacated by Shannon Dunham and Laurie Garcia, who resigned in the wake of the failed superintendent search.

“The City Council and School Committee are committed to ensuring this process is transparent and fair,” City Council President Homar Gomez said at a joint meeting of the two boards Wednesday night. “The public will remain informed throughout the selection process as we will hold all meetings in a hybrid format.”

Under the terms of the city’s charter, the council and the committee will hold three joint meetings — one to establish rules for the process, one to interview candidates and one to select candidates using ranked-choice voting for the two open positions.

Since there is an election this year, the committee terms will only be until Dec. 31. Should an individual want to continue beyond that timeframe, they will need to run for office in the regular election in November, said Gomez.

Those interested in serving on the School Committee for a partial term have until Monday to submit a statement of interest to City Clerk Barbara LaBombard. The statement can be sent to: Office of the City Clerk, 50 Payson Ave., Easthampton, MA 01027 or email to cityclerk@easthamptonma.gov.

Those who are eligible need to be from Easthampton, at least 18 years old and registered to vote.

Interviews

At the next meeting, scheduled for Thursday, May 18, at 7:15 p.m., the two boards will interview any candidates who express an interest in serving for the partial term. Each candidate will have five minutes to speak.

Members of both bodies discussed how the process varied from standard hiring practices or elections. Precinct 1 Councilor James “J.P.” Kwiecinski, District 3 Councilor Tom Peake and Mayor Nicole LaChapelle all noted that this was more of a political process rather than one that involved human resources.

As such, several members of the two groups debated whether they all should ask questions.

Several School Committee members noted that the most important job the future temporary members would have was helping to find the next interim superintendent.

School Committee Chairperson Cynthia Kwiecinski advocated supplying candidates with a statement in advance of the interviews that would have them discuss their interest in the position, their thoughts about participating in the interviews for interim superintendent and what they’re looking for in that candidate.

The statement was approved 11-2 at Wednesday’s joint meeting, with Gomez and LaChapelle dissenting.

Then by an 8-5 vote, the two bodies agreed to allow each of the 14 members of the City Council and School Committee to ask each candidate one question. The group also unanimously agreed that the candidate’s response to each question will be limited to one minute.

Ranked-choice voting

The third and final joint meeting of the two bodies will take place on Wednesday, May 31 at 6 p.m. There, the council and school committee members will use ranked-choice voting to appoint two new School Committee members.

Peake spoke with Gomez about utilizing ranked-choice voting rather than using majority voting.

“We used it the last time we had to fill a vacancy and we thought it went a lot smoother than the last time we had to do this for a School Committee member … there were sequential rounds of not reaching a majority and then having to go back at it. So we thought that this would be a good idea,” said Peake.

In pitching the idea, he provided a PowerPoint presentation detailing the process, noting that it was used in 2020 when Erica Flood was elected to the council to fill the at-large seat of former councilor William Lynch IV. Similar to the process, he said that each of the 14 members of the council and committee will rank the candidates in order of preference.

As part of the sequential ranked-choice voting process, members of both political bodies will fill out a single ballot — either in-person or remotely — that will be used in both elections.

After a candidate is declared the winner, they will be removed from the ballot and a second single-winner election is held. The winners of these two races will be the two winners of the race, said Peake.

Dan Gilbert, the election warden in Easthampton who will tabulate the votes under the supervision of LaBombard, walked meeting members through a sample scenario.

Emily Thurlow can be reached at ethurlow@gazettenet.com.]]>