Former School Committee member Frederick Sannella was sworn in to fill the remaining committee term of the late Anthony “Tony” Mattera at a joint meeting of the city council and school committee on Monday night.
Mattera, a former Revere educator who was elected to the school committee last year, died in June.
Sannella narrowly trailed Mattera for the sixth and final committee seat in the 2023 municipal election, tallying 2,304 votes to Mattera’s 2,337.
A vacancy on the school committee is filled by the defeated candidate with the most votes from the previous election, with the approval of the council and the school committee.
The members present from both boards unanimously approved Sannella’s appointment. Sannella was then sworn in by City Clerk Ashely Melnik.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the voters of Revere for taking a look at an old warhorse,” said Sannella. “It’s unfortunate how I am replacing a past member of the school committee, it’s not a comfort zone, but the mechanism was in place, and I am grateful, grateful to the city council members, grateful to the school committee, and I will serve with the best of my ability.”
In addition to previously serving on the school committee, Sannella was an elementary school teacher at the Lincoln School and the assistant principal at the Whelan School.
