LAWRENCE — Two of the victorious School Committee candidates in yesterday's city elections cited taking definitive action on suspended School Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy as their top priority.
"To me, he's the biggest problem facing the new committee and Mayor-elect William Lantigua," veteran member James Vittorioso said after winning his fourth consecutive two-year term, his fifth overall.
Vittorioso was re-elected to his District A Prospect Hill seat, defeating first-time challenger Rafael Gadea 990-573. There were also 284 blank ballots cast in the race.
"We need to work on firing Laboy without legal repercussions. He's definitely the top priority," said Mark Gray after his 1,217 to 1,184 upset victory over incumbent Peter Larocque for the District E Mount Vernon area seat.
Larocque, who is finishing his third year on the committee, said he has no plans to seek a recount of the 33-vote defeat.
"I congratulate Mark, and I will move on. I'm not going to be seeking a recount. The people have spoken, and that's what's so great about our electoral process," Larocque said.
As in the preliminary election, in which Larocque beat Gray by 372 votes, the winner failed to capture 50 percent of the district vote. There were 378 blank votes and 48 write-ins — an undetermined amount for Homayoun Maali, who received 345 votes as the third place finisher in the preliminary election.
In the only other contested committee race, Gregory Morris retained his District F South Lawrence East seat with a 1,028 to 694 win over James Stokes.
Samuel Reyes of Tower Hill District D and Martina Cruz of the North Common District B neighborhood had no opponents in their re-election bids for two-year terms.
It was Reyes' complaints to several state agencies and to the Essex County district attorney's office that triggered the investigations that led to the suspension of Laboy in June.
Frank Bonet, the former city personnel director, also had no opposition for the District C Arlington neighborhood seat.
With the election of state Rep. William Lantigua as mayor — and the chairman of the new School Committee — Hispanic politicians will hold the majority edge on the committee for the first time in the city's electoral history. Hispanics will maintain their hold on half of the six district seats.
Lantigua is the only member-elect of the committee that takes office in January who has not taken a public stand against retaining Laboy.
In a previous Eagle-Tribune poll, all of the district committee member candidates said they don't support the return of Laboy, even if he is exonerated of allegations of financial wrongdoing currently being investigated by an Essex County grand jury.
"This is going to be a very, very sobering two years — beginning with the problem of Wilfredo T. Laboy," Vittorioso said last night.
"Is he going to continue to collect $4,000 a week for doing nothing? Or is Lawrence going to move forward?" Vittorioso asked.
Dealing with the Laboy issue as soon as possible would go a long ways toward restoring public confidence in the Lawrence school system and the committee, Gray said.
