By JOSH RESNEK
The mayor’s plan to “pack” the Everett School Committee (ESC) has met with strong statements of condemnation by ESC members and several city councilors put off by the revelation made in last week’s Leader Herald.
“I am horrified by the suggestion if it is true,” said School Committeewoman Dana Murray.
Murray is one of those the mayor would would like to see replaced.
“I have concerns about this,” School Committeeman Frank Parker told the Leader Herald.
He said the voters would determine who serves and that it would be difficult for the mayor to elect a slate of his own choosing.
Parker may pay the price of the mayor’s derision and non-support for such honest remarks in November.
School Committeewoman Samantha Lambert is also said to be facing the mayor’s ire.
“I have no reason to be intimidated,” Lambert told the Leader Herald.
She said her focus is two-fold – students and voters.
“I welcome a broad field of candidates, it’s healthy and keeps us all accountable,” she added.
“If I have done well, they will re- elect me.”
The mayor perceives Murray, Lambert, Councilor Gerly Adrien, and Superintendent Priya Tahiliani, and the staff members she has hired as too independent and non-conforming.
The mayor’s misogyny appears to be getting in the way of his better judgment.
Nearly every member of the ESC had apparently heard of the mayor’s newest effort to rule over the ESC; not simply to sit as a voting member of the ESC, but to determine who as well serves.
The mayor’s packing plan has raised the eyebrows of many teachers and administrators.
The plan is for the mayor to support the candidacies of hand-picked supporters to take out papers, to run, and to win in November, ostensibly with and because of his support.
He is said to be relying on a high-ranking city official and his mother as well as an Everett firefighter at the present time.
The ultimate aim?
More votes for him to control. The mayor is hoping to defeat a number of ESC members to rid himself of a nemesis – Superintendent Tahiliani.
When the new ESC is sworn in in January, he’d like to vote Tahiliani out of her superintendent’s position, assuming his chosen candidates win.