School board vacancy opens for Waterbury

Sept. 17, 2022  |  By Lisa Scagliotti 

One of Waterbury’s four seats on the Harwood Unified Union School Board has come open and applicants are needed to fill the spot through Town Meeting Day in March. 

At this week’s board meeting, Chair Kristen Rodgers announced that Iana Gabriella Fraser recently resigned saying she is not living in Waterbury, making her ineligible to hold the position any longer. 

In an email dated Sept. 14 to the school board, Fraser wrote: “Thank you for the opportunity to serve with you as a HUUSD school board member unfortunately my living and housing circumstances changed in unexpected ways this summer and I am having a longer delay than I thought would occur in moving permanently into my Waterberry residence and property. As a result, I think it prudent that I should resign my seat on the HUUSD school board.”

Fraser was Waterbury’s newest school board member and she served only briefly. She was appointed on May 11 to fill the seat until March 2023. She attended three of the board’s five meetings since then before stepping down.  

School board terms are for three years. This seat’s term began in March 2021 when Michael Frank was elected. Since then, three others have held the position: Scott Culver from July 2021 until March 2022 and Jacqueline Kelleher briefly in March. Kelleher resigned shortly after being elected when the school district denied her request for a computer to use for board business. 

Fraser was appointed to serve until the next election which happens in March 2023. 

Rodgers also has notified the Waterbury Select Board of the school board vacancy. The school board invites the local select boards to interview candidates for interim appointments and make a recommendation to the school board. 

Rodgers said letters of interest will be due by Oct. 12 and Select Board Chair Mike Bard said the board could interview candidates at its Oct. 17 meeting. 

The seat’s term ends in 2024 and the remaining year would be on the Town Meeting Day ballot for the appointee as well as other candidates to seek election. 

Waterbury’s three other representatives on the HUUSD School Board are Kelley Hackett, who serves as vice chair, Marlena Tucker-Fishman, and Victoria Taravella. Hackett’s term also ends in 2023, one of eight seats on the 14-member board that will be up for election on Town Meeting Day. 

Anyone interested in applying to fill the Waterbury opening should email a letter of interest to Rodgers at krodgers@huusd.org and Superintendent Mike Leichliter at mleichliter@huusd.org.