LYNN — The Lynn School Committee appointed city attorney George Markopoulos as the interim attorney for the district to replace John Mihos, who died unexpectedly May 21 after serving in the position since 1985.
Last Thursday night’s committee meeting started off with a moment of silence as Mayor Thomas M. McGee recognized the loss and said the committee will carry Mihos with them as they move forward.
“We’re all meeting tonight with heavy hearts for the loss we have sustained from one of our colleagues and friends,” McGee said. “John was committed to this committee and the many members and superintendents over the years, but more importantly to the community and the students in the schools.”
Markopoulos currently serves as the city solicitor but has offered to fill in as the interim attorney for the schools until the position is filled.
As the interim attorney, the School Committee agreed that Markopoulos will offer his expertise to answer questions that may arise at meetings.
School Committee member Michael Satterwhite expressed his concern about having a city attorney representing the schools, citing circumstances where the city and school don’t agree on certain matters, such as what to do with the old Thurgood Marshall Middle School.
“I just want to make sure that there’s some guidelines there and if (he) wants to help that’s fine but I think we should not forget that there’s some competing interest in regards to school property,” Satterwhite said.
In response to that, McGee said in terms of what is on the agenda, most of the work has been done. He said Markopoulos would be needed to answer questions for what needs to be done at roll calls and to ensure that the committee is moving forward in the appropriate manners without any legal problems arising.
“His specific purpose would be to help us get these meetings done in an appropriate way and in the meantime, we can have further discussions on what will be done next,” McGee said.
Committee vice chair Donna Coppola said she thinks Markopoulos will work well as the interim attorney and member Lorraine Gately said Markopoulos was already locating and looking at Mihos’ work log when she stopped by his office last week.
“I think he has it in hand and has a good understanding of what we need and I think he would do a really good job for the interim,” Gately said.
With Markopoulos temporarily filling in, McGee said the committee will have further discussions of who will be the permanent attorney at future meetings.
“All of our goals are to meet the interest of the committee and obviously those that we will be negotiating with. Other issues we will deal with in the next few weeks,” McGee said.
