Magliocchetti Ascends to School Committee Leadership After Weeks of Strife

Haverhill School Committee member Paul A. Magliocchetti. (Courtesy photograph.)

Haverhill lawyer Paul A. Magliocchetti (pictured) is the School Committee’s new vice chairman, finally taking the gavel after more than a month’s delay.

Committee members had been unable to decide how to select their second-in-command, or whom to choose, since the board’s first meeting after the Jan. 1 inauguration.

Several tie votes, the result of absences or abstentions, saw a number of proposed policies go down to defeat, including naming the top vote-getter, the most senior member, or the member who had yet to serve in a leadership role.

Nominations of former committee Vice President Scott W. Wood Jr. and member Sven A. Amirian to succeed President Gail Sullivan also failed.

On Thursday, Wood offered to withdraw his name from consideration in exchange for a proposal to appoint the senior committee member, beginning next year. Wood said he would nominate Amirian. The move was designed to end the standoff, which was “making us look bad,” Wood said.

However, Wood’s proposal failed, after which Amirian nominated Magliocchetti and member Maura Ryan-Ciardiello nominated Wood.

Magliocchetti and Wood voted for themselves; Ryan-Ciardiello and Mayor James J. Fiorentini voted for Wood; and Rosa, Amirian and Sullivan voted for Magliocchetti, ending the lengthy stalemate.

Two weeks ago, School Committee members did agree to eliminate the president and vice president roles, selecting a vice chairman to run meetings in the absence of Fiorentini, who is the committee’s chairman.