The Everett School Committee re-elected Samantha Hurley as its chair on Monday, January 5, a 10-0 roll call taken at the Everett High School library shortly after 8 p.m., once Mayor Robert J. Van Campen had been sworn in and the City Council had organized down the hall. Jeanne Cristiano, the senior member, ran the meeting until the vote. Marcony Almeida Barros was then elected vice chair on a roll call.
Almeida Barros, who nominated Hurley, recalled her call a year earlier asking for the chair while still in her first term. “I said, But you just got elected and you wanna be chair already? And I voted for her to be chair during that time. It was one of the best decisions that I’ve made,” he said. “She has led this group with grace, compassion, and attention.” Robin Babcock, who seconded, said Hurley “has done everything she can to learn the appropriate procedures” and “makes us all a better school committee.”
Hurley, who said it was “truly an honor” to serve a second consecutive term, laid out three priorities: a committee retreat through the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, a rewrite of the committee’s rules and policies, which she called “overdue for review and revision,” and the district’s push for more space. “I’m asking for the committee’s continued support of the district’s expansion efforts and to address overcrowding,” she said. “We have never been in a better position to develop an actionable plan that benefits the Everett Public Schools and the city of Everett.”
Almeida Barros as vice chair
Cristiano nominated Almeida Barros, who joined the committee in 2017 as its first openly gay and Latino member. She traced his path from Brazil nearly 30 years ago to a master’s degree at Northeastern, the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants, the community engagement division of the attorney general’s office and his current post as deputy chief of access and opportunity for Gov. Maura Healey. “We’ve got a real gem in Marcony,” she said. Van Campen, who seconded, called him “a bridge builder, a collaborator.” Almeida Barros thanked family watching on YouTube in Brazil and recalled learning as a new member that about 100 Everett students were homeless, which led him to bring a rent-assistance program for homeless students to Everett High. “That’s the work of this body, to work on behalf of our families and our kids to give them an opportunity,” he said. He pointed out that the new mayor is his neighbor: “He’s building a fence.”
Also January 5
- Superintendent William Hart took the oath as secretary of the committee, administered by Hurley.
- The committee adopted its existing rules and regulations 10-0 and put off subcommittee appointments to its first regular meeting on Tuesday, January 20.
- Van Campen and Millie Cardello attended their first meeting as members. Student representative Emma Perry was also present. The meeting adjourned at 8:31 p.m.
