SAUGUS – The new School Committee unanimously voted to re-appoint Wendy Reed Chairperson and newcomer Corinne Riley Vice-Chairperson Thursday night, during the Committee?s first meeting since Tuesday?s election.Reed thanked her three sons and said she hasn?t stopped smiling since the debt exclusion for the Belmonte Middle School repair project passed.?I am still beaming and grinning,” said Reed. “I am so pleased that this is going forward. We?ve been working on this for such a long time. The Building Committee was wonderful. We had 26 people on that committee, so a lot of people worked on that and all came together. It was the confidence that this was the right thing to do. I?m so happy it passed and I can?t wait to put the shovel in the ground.”Riley, thanked her supporters for both voting for her, and for voting to pass the debt exclusion for the Belmonte repair project.?I?m thrilled and looking forward to working with everybody,” said Riley. “I want to publicly thank the Question 1 Committee. It helped tremendously to get the word out in town and we?re really grateful for that.Arthur Grabowski won his second consecutive term on the School Committee,?I appreciate the fact that the residents came out to vote,” said Grabowski. “I?d also like to recognize Tom Stewart for his work that he gave to this committee for two years. Tom and I had a lot of talks, both good and bad, and we counseled each other and I learned a lot from Tom.Joe Malone also won re-election, and thanked both Stewart and William Leuci, who stepped down from the committee, for their work.?I?d like to thank Tom Stewart who did an excellent job as vice-chair of this committee and Bill Leuci who chose to retire, another tremendous contributor to the Committee,” said Malone. “I also want to thank everyone who supported the override.”Rick Doucette returned to the School Committee after serving from 2007 to 2009. Doucette thanked his family and said he?s looking forward to moving forward with the Belmonte project.?It just really shows this community continuing to move forward,” said Doucette. “MCAS results, we?ve gone from (level) three to two, now we?re going to re-do the middle school. We?re really showing the education in this community continuing to make great strides forward.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected]. You can follow him on Twitter @MattTempesta.
