PORTSMOUTH — Dartmouth school teacher Karen Marlow McDaid and Roger Williams University student development coordinator Juan Carlos Payero were appointed Wednesday night to fill two unexpired terms on the School Committee.

At a special meeting to consider five candidates vying for the vacancies, the Town Council voted 5-1 to appoint Ms. McDaid and Mr. Payero on separate motions. (Council member Andrew Kelly did not attend the meeting.)

The two seats became vacant due to the resignations of former School Committee Chairwoman Terri Cortvriend, who was elected to the District 72 seat in the R.I. House of Representatives on Nov. 6; and another member, Mr. Kelly, who was elected to the Town Council. 

Ms. McDaid and Mr. Payero, who will fill out terms that end in 2020, will be sworn in as soon as they clear a routine criminal background check. They could both take the oath of office as early as Thursday, Dec. 20, according to Town Clerk Jennifer West.

The other candidates were Sara Churgin, district manager of the Eastern Rhode Island Conservation District; John Schlesinger, a project program management specialist advisor for Plano, Texas-based NTT Data Services; and Jason Spitalnik, a self-employed teacher of structural integration.

Seven residents in all responded to the town’s advertisement for applicants by the Dec. 14 deadline. 

“Unfortunately, there were two applicants who were ineligible because at the time they were not currently registered voters in the Town of Portsmouth,” Council President Kevin Aguiar said at the start of the meeting.

Those two applicants were Milena Anatchkova, a senior research scientist with Evidera in Waltham, Mass.; and Christine Nolan, a wellness life coach and a former community treatment specialist with the East Bay Community Action Program. 

Two-minute presentations

At Wednesday’s meeting, which was over in less than an hour, each of the five candidates was permitted a two-minute presentation to the council. After that, council members took a few minutes each to discuss the applicants, and then motions were accepted. Council members had already reviewed the candidates’ résumés and cover letters that addressed their goals and strengths.

Ms. McDaid said her background as a teacher, former consultant and business person made her a strong candidate for school board. She said she possesses strong problem-solving and interpretive skills, and understands the importance of fiscal responsibility. 

“I want to make a great school system even better,” said Ms. McDaid, whose son Jack, a Portsmouth High School graduate, just finished his first semester at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Noting she’s worked with an identical academic performance assessment in the Massachusetts schools since 2002, Ms. McDaid said she would work to strengthen “academic rigor” by improving students’ RICAS (Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System) scores. “I’ve seen scores improve, and I understand the hard work that requires,” she said.

Mr. Payero said his main focus as a school board member would be improving the emotional security of students, staff and administrators. 

“Emotional learning and emotional intelligence is extremely important to me and should be the bedrock” of students’ academic success, said Mr. Payero, adding that schools that stress emotional intelligence are better able to address issues such as bullying and self-harm. He also said parental involvement is also key to a school district’s success.

Ms. Churgin, who has four children — her youngest is 11 and attends the middle school — said she’s been actively involved as a school volunteer since her kids began school.

If she were on the school board, Ms. Churgin said one of her biggest goals would be to help the district’s relatively new special needs program grow and flourish. “I want all the special needs children in Portsmouth to be the best they can be,” said Ms. Churgin, who has a son with special needs herself.

She also said she’s a strong supporter of social and emotional learning, and would help the district increase resources for students with mental health needs.

Mr. Schlesinger, who ran unsuccessfully for School Committee in November — he was the only applicant on the ballot — said he believed parents were the most important factor in a child’s academic success. 

“We should ask more for them and they should ask more for themselves,” he said. “It all starts at home, because that’s where they are the other 16 hours of the day.”

Mr. Schlesinger also said school districts tend to “get in a rut” over testing. “I’d like to teach more, and test last. I’d like to learn more, and worry about tests last,” he said.

Mr. Spitalnik, whose 4-year-old son will enter Melville School in September 2019, cited his experience as postsecondary education instructor and co-founder of the nonprofit Sustainable Aquidneck/Aquidneck Community Table. He said he's helped start many community gardens on the island as well as a compositing coalition.

“These things I’ve gotten behind have gotten done,” he said, adding that initiating school gardens would be valuable in teaching students about where food comes from, composting and other skills.

‘Five very qualified candidates’

Before they voted, council members emphasized the strength of all the candidates who applied, and urged those not selected to stay involved by attending meetings or consider serving on a town board.

“I think we have five very qualified candidates here. I think it’s a shame we can appoint only two,” said Mr. Aguiar.

Council member J. Mark Ryan started the process by nominating Ms. McDaid, who was selected on a 5-1 vote, with council member Keith Hamilton opposed.

Mr. Hamilton then nominated Mr. Schlesinger, noting he was the only applicant who ran for School Committee this year and “got more votes than all but two of us sitting up here today.” Mr. Schlesinger also has strong IT and grant-writing skills and has two children in the school system, Mr. Hamilton said.

His motion failed, however, in a 3-3 vote. Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Aguiar and council member Daniela Abbott supported the nomination, while Dr. Ryan, Council Vice President Linda Ujifusa and council member Len Katzman voted against.

Ms. Abbott then nominated Mr. Payero, who was appointed in a 5-1 vote, with Mr. Hamilton in the minority. Mr. Hamilton made it clear his “no” votes were not cast “against” Mr. Payero or Ms. McDaid, but that he simply had two other candidates in mind.

Questions process

Although she ended up voting for both Ms. McDaid and Mr. Payero, Ms. Abbott indicated earlier her top choice was Mr. Spitalnik. She said his background in sustainability and food production would be a valuable asset for the district.

“There is one huge area that the majority of parents I speak with are disappointed and where there’s room for improvement, and that’s in our cafeteria,” Ms. Abbott said. “We are feeding are kids garbage, we are not recycling and we don’t have school gardens.”

She also suggested changing the process of filling school board vacancies going forward by having each council member first rank candidates by preference, then have the full panel vote on the top two or three applicants.