NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The School Committee is seeking candidates to fill a vacancy on the committee. 

 

Letters of interest should be submitted to Bobbi Tassone, administrative assistant to the superintendent, at btassone@napsk12.org by 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 6. 

 

The School Committee and City Council will hear from candidates and vote for the new committee member at the council's regular meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 13.

 

The schedule presented by Mayor Jennifer Macksey was approved at the School Committee's meeting on Tuesday. 

 

The successful candidate will fill the four-year seat won by Chelsey Lyn Ciolkowski in the Nov. 4 election. Ciolkowski withdrew from consideration but not before her name was printed on the ballot, and she earned enough votes for third place in the four-way race for three seats. 

 

School Committee member Richard Alcombright questioned the timing of the process as there is not a vacancy until Jan. 1, and that, technically, Ciolkowski has not resigned.

 

Alcombright is not returning to the committee; his colleagues Emily Daunis and David Sookey both won re-election.

 

"Is this something that should be done now, or should it be done in January?" he asked the mayor. "I don't want to see you get caught up in anything that's all and this is the only reason I'm bringing it up. I'm going to approve this anyway, but I just want to bring that up."

 

Macksey said she appreciated the concern but she had spoken with the city solicitor and that Ciolkowski had presented the committee with a letter stating she has no intention of filling the position.

 

Prior to the election, Ciolkowski had been hired by the school system, which negated her ability to serve. 

 

"Because she has presented us with a letter that she has no intention of the filling the position, we can start the process now and the Jan. 13 meeting would be appropriate because it's the first meeting of the new City Council," the mayor said. 

 

"We've talked at length to the city solicitor about the process, and because she has already said that she had no intention of filling the position at this point, that we could start the process and get it moving."

 

The School Committee's portion would be at the beginning of the council's 7 p.m. meeting. 

 

She encouraged the committee members to "shake the trees" to find potential candidates for the post. 

 

This isn't the first time the joint convention of the council and committee has filled a vacancy on the School Committee. The mayor noted that Alyssa Tomkowicz came to the committee by being voted in to fill a vacancy. 

 

Tomkowicz was one of two candidates in 2023 who applied to fill the vacancy created by Joshua Vallieres, who had to resign as he was employed as the city clerk at the time. Daunis also first came to the committee by way of a vacancy when the late Robert Moulton Jr. resigned in 2020. Both have since been elected in their own right. 

 

"I do know that the fourth candidate (Eric Wilson) certainly will be putting in a letter of interest," Macksey said. "So we will just take all the letters and vet them all equally and see what this body and the City Council would like to do for an appointment."