Nahant school board members opt out

NAHANT – Incumbents Peter Przybycien and Peter Barba have both announced they will not run for re-election to the School Committee this spring.Barba, who moved to town in 1994, said he has spent much of his time serving on town committees including the Golf Course Committee, Johnson School Renovation Committee, Coast Guard Committee and School Committee.”It’s time for me to take a break,” he said. “We are announcing our decision not to run early to give other people time to step up.”Barba said he has enjoyed his time on the School Committee and he encouraged others to consider running for office.”It’s been interesting,” he said. “It’s been fun and at times it has been a lot of work. Things are going pretty smoothly now and the school is running well.”Przybycien said some of the things he is most proud of during his three-year tenure on the School Committee is the renovation of Johnson School and hiring new administrators. He was quick to add there is a lot of work to be done and he decided not to run for re-election due to time constraints.Przybycien said he believes the most pressing issue facing the School Committee in the near future is securing state funding.”We need to get sustainable funding from the state,” he said. “It’s very difficult to get programs running and on track when you don’t know how much money you will receive from the state from year to year.”Przybycien was chairman of the School Committee until last August when he stepped down after coming under fire for telling The Daily Item that he enrolled his children in a private school because of the lack of funding and available programs at Johnson Elementary School.At an emergency School Committee meeting shortly after Przybycien made that statement, the School Committee agreed it was in the best interest of the district for him to step down as chairman and Barba was appointed chairman.Town Clerk Harriet Steeves said nomination papers have to be returned by March 10 to secure a place on the April 26 ballot.