Sondra Blank is the newest member of the Portsmouth School Committee.

PORTSMOUTH — In a 4-3 vote, the Town Council Monday night selected Sondra Blank, a Raytheon employee, to fill a vacancy on the School Committee. The appointment is good through the November election.

Blank beat out four other candidates for the seat, which became vacant when  committee member Allen Shers died in November. She has worked at Raytheon Technologies since 2005, and is currently manager of its Seapower Integration & Test Section. Blank has an eighth-grader in the school system, as well as a 3- and 2-year old. 

Blank was one of two candidates nominated Monday night. The other was Lisa N. Janssen, 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.

Council member Leonard Katzman began by nominating Blank, whom he said had sought a seat on the council as well as the School Committee in the past. “Glad to see someone who’s persistent,” he said.

Council member Keith Hamilton nominated Janssen, noting her involvement in the public schools as well as local sports organizations. 

The council vote for Blank was 4-3, with Katzman, Council Vice President Linda Ujifusa, Andrew Kelly, and J. Mark Ryan in support of her, and Hamilton, Daniela Abbott, and Council President Kevin Aguiar voting against. 

In a separate tally for Janssen, she was voted down 3-4, with Abbott, Hamilton and Aguiar in favor of appointing her.

Ujifusa said she liked the fact that Blank has a background and experience that was similar to that of Shers. “That’s what tipped it for me,” she said.

The other three candidates who applied for the vacancy were:

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

After the vacancy was re-advertised, six applied for the position, including Holtman, who said she now had more time for the position, and was more confident the pandemic was becoming manageable for her family. 

One of the new applicants, Benjamin Furriel, withdrew from consideration before Monday’s meeting. Mr. Furriel, who works at Raytheon, is a member of the Zoning Board of Review.

Monday’s appointment was the fourth time in a little over three years in which the council, and not voters, selected someone to fill a vacancy on the School Committee.