PORTSMOUTH — After extending the deadline for applicants another month, five more residents have thrown their hats in the ring for the vacant seat on the School Committee, making it a total of six candidates.

The Town Council is expected to make an appointment on Monday, Feb. 14. The meeting, which starts at 7 p.m., will take place at Town Hall, and members of the public may also participate virtually by following this link: https://livestream.portsmouthri.com/towncouncil.

The vacancy was created due to the death of committee member Allen Shers in November, and it’s up to the council to appoint a successor. It will be the fourth time in a little over three years in which the council, and not voters, will be selecting someone to fill a vacancy on the School Committee.

Here are the six candidates vying to fill the vacancy (click the names to see their applications):

• Sondra Blank has worked at Raytheon Technologies since 2005, currently as manager of its Seapower Integration & Test Section. She has an eighth-grader as well as a 3- and 2-year old. 

• Donald F. Clukies, who ran for Tiverton School Committee in 1986, has lived in Portsmouth since 1990 and both of his sons were educated here. He’s a former member of the Portsmouth Charter Commission.

• Benjamin Furriel has worked at Raytheon for 32 years as an engineer, department manager, technical director and project manager. He is a member of the Zoning Board of Review, serving as its secretary.

• Catherine (Cate) Holtman previously served on the School Committee from 2018 to 2020 (see more below). She has been employed by Embrace Home Loans in Middletown since 2004, and is currently the company’s training and internal communications manager.

• Lisa N. Janssen is the office manager of Janssen Family Chiropractic in Middletown, where she’s worked since 2003. She’s also a member of the PHS School Improvement Team, and was the PTO president at the middle school from 2013 to 2016.

• Sofia A. Sinclair is an analyst at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, having worked there since 2014. She has three children, ages 4, 8, and 10.

Deadline extended

The council was originally scheduled to make the appointment last month, but voted unanimously to delay the matter until Feb. 14 because only one candidate — Holtman — had applied for the advertised position by the Jan. 4 deadline.

Holtman created a vacancy on the school board herself when she resigned in September 2020. At the time, she cited family and work challenges caused by the COVID pandemic as her reasons for resigning, and said she needed to focus on the immediate needs of her children and career. The council, in November 2020, appointed Isabelle Kelly from a pool of four applicants to fill Holtman’s seat.

In her application for the vacancy, Holtman, who had served on the committee since 2018 before her resignation, explained why she now felt comfortable serving on the school board again.

“Schools and childcare centers over the past year have provided us with confidence in their abilities to remain open the majority of the time and both my children are now eligible for vaccinations,” she stated. “Additionally, my husband and I have both moved to permanent hybrid work schedules giving us much more flexibility than we have had in the past. I have full confidence in my ability to make a commitment to the School Committee once again.”

In addition to Isabelle Kelly’s appointment in November 2020, the council selected Karen M. McDaid and Juan Carlos Payero in December 2018 to fill two vacancies on the school board due to the resignations of former Chairwoman Terri Cortvriend, who was elected that November to the District 72 seat in the R.I. House of Representatives; and another member, Andrew Kelly, who was elected to the Town Council. After both served for two years, McDaid and Payero won uncontested seats on the board in the 2020 election.