Mancuso

A divided Westbrook School Committee on Dec. 11 elected Andrea Mancuso its chair and Katy Rice, vice chair.

Both votes were 5-2 with committee members Jeremy McGowan, the former vice chair, and Noreen Poitras, opposed. Attempts to reach McGowan and Poitras prior to the American Journal deadline Wednesday were unsuccessful.

Superintendent Peter Lancia officiated the meeting that began at 7 p.m. until the board’s new leaders were elected.

Rice

First, the board voted to go into executive session to discuss reorganization. The board and Lancia then left its meeting chambers at Westbrook High School and entered a room across the corridor. Executive sessions are private, confidential discussions.

They returned to its public meeting at about 7:32 p.m. and voted on the board’s chair and vice chair.

The meeting’s printed agenda called for an executive session to discuss appointments and committee assignments, citing Maine statute 1 MRSA section 405, subsection 6-A. It states that deliberations on appointments may be discussed during executive sessions, and “an executive session may be held only if public discussion could be reasonably expected to cause damage to the individual’s reputation or the individual’s right to privacy would be violated.”

The Dec. 11 meeting video did not commence until after the board returned from executive session to its public meeting.

Rice nominated Mancuso when Lancia called for nominations for chair and Erin Cavallaro seconded the motion that passed. Poitras attempted to nominate McGowan, but Lancia ruled one nomination at a time and it carried with no further nominations.

Lancia then handed the gavel to Mancuso, who requested nominations for vice chair. McGowan nominated Poitras, who seconded it, but the nomination failed. Mancuso then opened it up for a second nomination and Brooke Reed named Rice, seconded by Cavallaro, and it succeeded.