Christina Bryant is the newest member of the School Committee, filling a vacancy left by Michelle Badger, who was elected to the state House of Representatives in November.
Bryant was chosen after four rounds of voting in a joint meeting of the School Committee and the Select Board Monday night. The boards, totaling 11 members, interviewed five candidates: Margaret Matthews, Ronan Buchanan, Deborah Dugan, Bethany Rogers, and Bryant, before choosing Bryant. She won the needed six votes in the fourth round of tallying.
Bryant serves on the Plymouth Public Schools Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, and is vice chair of the No Place for Hate Committee. She said she is the chief operating officer of a shelter for women and children experiencing homelessness in Boston.
She told the boards that she was motivated to apply by her concern for accessibility and equity in public schools. She cited as chief challenges the local system’s aging infrastructure and the growing needs of students who speak a language other than English at home.
Bryant also spoke about what she perceives as differences between the town’s two high schools.
“As a parent of five children who have all been students in the district, I found that depending on what side of town you live on provides a different trajectory for the student,” she told the board members. She wants students who move from the Plymouth South High School district to Plymouth North’s to have access to the same opportunities, programming, and curriculum.
“My experience has been different navigating from South to North,” Bryant said. “That should not be the case.”
She did not elaborate.
After the five candidates were interviewed, members of the joint panel nominated four of them: Bryant, Buchanan, Rogers, and Matthews.
In the first round of voting, Bryant received five votes, one shy of the majority needed. Buchanan, an 18-year-old senior at Plymouth South High School, and Rogers, a former member of the Advisory and Finance Committee and a candidate for School Committee in last May’s town election, received three votes each.
A second vote yielded the same results.
At that point, Kevin Canty, vice chair of the Select Board, suggested a runoff between Rogers and Buchanan to determine who would face off against Bryant.
Rogers won by a 7-4 vote.
Bryant won the final vote, 6-4, with School Committee members Vedna Lacombe-Heywood, James Sorensen, Katherine Jackson and Select Board chair Dick Quintal and members John Mahoney and Charlie Bletzer voting for her, and Canty and School Committee members Ashley Shaw and Robert Morgan and vice chair Luis Pizano voting for Rogers.
Select Board member David Golden abstained.
Bryant immediately took her place on the seven-member School Committee. She’ll serve until the town election in May, at which time she could seek a full term.
Badger had been the committee chair. It will choose a new chair at its next meeting scheduled for Jan. 27.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org