Romeo, Lockwood to lead Board of Education

A former board member and two newcomers were sworn in to three-year terms on the Board of Education at its annual reorganization meeting Jan. 3.

William Cytowicz, who served on the board from 2017 to 2019, and Peter Lippe received 4,635 and 4,625 votes, respectively, in the Nov. 8 election. Tara Racano received 393 write-in votes.

Kate Romeo was elected board president and Claire Lockwood vice president at the meeting Jan. 3.

The board faces some difficult decisions, Romeo said.

“I truly believe that this board is passionate. This district is amazing. I’m excited to work together with everyone, all stakeholders, to make it the absolute best that it can be.”

Lockwood said she is confident that the board members can work together although they may not always agree.

Cytowicz, who lost his bid for re-election in 2019 and another run in 2020, said he was excited and nervous about the new term.

“There are challenges that we have to meet but I do have faith that we will meet them together.”

Lippe said he was looking forward to working with the board.

Racano thanked the people who voted for her. “I launched a really unorthodox campaign in this election, being the write-in candidate. And it took a lot of feet on the ground to get me here.”

New website

Lockwood criticized the district’s new website, saying, “It just doesn’t look right. I thought the point of this was to be user-friendly. It’s not user-friendly at all.”

Some links don’t work, the calendar has some incorrect items and she was unable to sign into the website as a board member, she said.

”I just feel like we’ve had plenty of time to make this the best that we could and we failed.”

Superintendent Alex Anemone said the website is more user-friendly when accessed on a phone or mobile device.

Lockwood said the calendar has too many items and it is difficult to find basic information about early dismissal times or delayed openings.

Anemone called the size of the calendar a balancing act. “Is it just for district events? Is it just for school events? ... We decided to add more with the understanding that we could always take some information off the calendar.”

A webmaster was hired at a salary of $37,000 during the fall.

Former board member Cortney Stephenson asked what would happen with the annual senior walk-through by high school seniors walking through the elementary schools.

“I would like to suggest maybe bringing back the parade through the town so that all students feel that they are participating,” she said.