Mayor Arrigo Proposes Change in Structure of Revere School Committee To Ward Seats

Mayor Brian Arrigo is proposing that the Revere School Committee be restructured to have six members elected from each of the six wards in the city, along with two at-large seats elected citywide.

The sitting mayor serves as the ex-officio chair of the committee, which would result in a School Committee consisting of nine members as opposed to the current seven-member status.

Revere resident Wayne Rose asked why the School Committee would be changing its membership “after all these years.”

Councillor-at-Large Marc Silvestri responded that the reason for the change is “we are one of the few cities in Massachusetts that runs solely at-large for the School Committee.”

“The few other cities that have been doing the same procedure have had lawsuits filed against them that were successful and the people that petitioned the lawsuits and filed, actually notified the lawsuit was coming to Revere unless we changed the ruling of our election procedures for School Committee,” said Silvestri.

Council President Gerry Visconti said the cities of Worcester and Lowell were sued for having all School Committee seats being at-large seats, and the two cities lost their cases.

“So, this is more of a preventative [move], and it’s a change that’s going to happen, and rather than be tied up in a lawsuit, I think it’s the move to make,” said Visconti.

 The Council president said the next step for Mayor Arrigo’s proposal will be to go before the Council’s Legislative Affairs Subcommittee.