Joint Convention Feb. 16 To Fill Vacant School Seat
The School Committee and City Council will meet in person Feb. 16 to fill the vacant seat on the school committee.
Mayor Thomas Koch, who is also chairman of the school committee, has called for the joint convention of the School Committee and City Council to be held Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 6:30 p.m. in the cafeteria of Quincy High School, 100 Coddington St.
Chris Walker, Koch’s chief of staff, said nominations for the vacant seat would come from the floor during the joint convention.
The nine city councillors, five elected school committee members and Koch as school committee chairman will vote to name a successor to Anthony Andronico who resigned from his school seat to become the Ward 2 city councillor last month. Andronico is filling the unexpired term of former councillor Brad Croall who resigned from the council Jan. 19.
Andronico’s school seat term expires at the end of this year. The appointed successor can run for a full four-year term this fall.
One person who is interested in filling the school vacancy is Courtney Perdios. Perdios was the runner-up in a four-candidate field seeking three school seats in the 2019 municipal election.
“I am very interested in the School Committee seat that has become available as a result of Anthony’s appointment to the Ward 2 City Council seat,” Perdios told the Sun in a statement last week.
“Advocating for the students and families of the Quincy Public Schools (QPS) community is one of my strongest passions, and what I’ve spent the last 8 years doing, serving as Citywide PTO President and Clifford Marshall PTO Co-President, and as a member of the QPS Re-Entry Task Force. It’s what led me to run for School Committee just over a year ago in the 2019 election, in which I was proud to have earned the support and vote of 5,990 residents across the city.
“I’m excited for the opportunity, and I look forward to the joint convention process.”
Perdios was one of four candidates to run for three available committee seats in 2019. She finished 448 votes behind Frank Santoro, the candidate who amassed the third most votes.
Mark Sauter, who finished fourth in the 2017 contest in which Andronico was elected to the school board, said he would not seek the appointment.
“I will not be seeking an appointment for the remainder of Anthony’s term,” he wrote in an email. “Serving on the School Committee remains a goal of mine, but my focus and attention right now is on my family, work, and position as President of the Merrymount Association.”
Sauter said it was unlikely he would run in this fall’s election.
The last joint convention to fill a school board seat was held in January 2016 after Noel DiBona left the committee following his election to the council in November 2015. Emily Lebo – who mounted a write-in campaign for a school board seat in 2015 and finished in fourth place – was unanimously chosen to fill the remaining two years of DiBona’s term that night. Lebo had served a full four-year term on the committee before being unseated by DiBona in 2013.
The Jan. 27 School Committee meeting was Andronico’s last and he was sworn into the Ward 2 City Council seat during a brief ceremony at City Hall the following morning Jan. 28.
