BOSTON -- The political struggle over how to select members of the Essex Agricultural and Technical Institute's board of trustees may finally be over.
Legislation that dictates the selection process, included in the state budget the Legislature approved Tuesday, comes at a critical time for Essex Aggie. Its board of trustees is expected to play an important role in the school's potential merger with the North Shore Regional Vocational School. Although the composition of the board could change again if the merger occurs, lawmakers said it's important for Essex Aggie to have a viable board in the interim. Besides, they said, there's no guarantee the merger will happen.
Without enough members to reach a quorum, the board didn't meet during several months this year. Gov. Paul Cellucci recently tried to solve the problem by appointing four trustees, bringing the total membership up to five with two vacancies.
Lawmakers said the legislation, which still needs Cellucci's approval, is an important step for Essex Aggie's new life now that it's no longer run by the county. The three former commissioners of Essex County used to have seats on the board before the 1998 law that dissolved the county's government.
The new legislation establishes a formula for creating a new list of potential board members and expands the board's size from seven to nine members.
The formula is weighted in favor of the larger cities in the Essex County service area that typically send more students to the school, which sits on roughly 190 acres along Route 62 in Danvers.
The cities' mayors and the towns' boards of selectmen would submit candidates' names to the governor for approval under the limits imposed by the formula.The legislation doesn't completely spell out how the governor should choose candidates if more than nine are submitted, although it does limit municipalities to one seat on the board.
The legislation marked a victory for the Senate, which included it in that chamber's version of the budget.
The House had proposed a different selection process that didn't survive a budget conference committee's negotiations. The House plan called for the House speaker and Senate president to submit two candidates each to the governor. The remaining five would have inlcuded an alumnus, a teacher, a Danvers resident, a mayor or selectman, and a parent.
Rep. Harriett Stanley, D-West Newbury, said the Senate plan was inserted in the budget Monday night after many of the budget's details were announced earlier that day at a press conference.
Stanley, a member of the conference committee and a leading advocate for the House plan, was clearly disappointed.
"The smaller towns always lose out, and I was trying to protect them," Stanley said.
Stanley also said her plan would give state officials more control over who's on the board, something she said is important considering an increasing amount of state money is going to the school.
Sen. Fred Berry, D-Peabody, said the House plan didn't provide enough of a voice to the cities and towns on the North Shore.
"The individual communities ... are going to send a lot of kids to this program and they are going to pay the tuition, so I think they ought to have more input," said Berry, also a member of the conference committee.
About 40 municipalities send a total of roughly 350 students to the school, according to a recent study of proposed merger options. The school turns away the majority of applicants because there isn't enough space to accommodate them, said Essex Aggie superintendent Gustave Olson.
The cities and towns that send students to Essex Aggie are assessed a fee based on the number of students attending, Olson said. That fee is then subtracted from each of the communities' state aid packages, he said. The school receives millions of dollars in state aid every year. Olson said the school ran smoothly during the several months when the board didn't meet.
"There wasn't any real issue that demanded the attention of the board," Olson said.
Curtis Nikitas, a Peabody resident who recently left the board, said he hopes the legislation leads to improvements at Essex Aggie.
"I just hope they can get the board together and start pumping some money in and really improving it," Nikitas said. "We haven't spent any real capital money in a long time."
The legislation could lead to future political battles as cities and towns compete to secure seats on the board. It appears at least three of the current members -- if not the whole board -- could be forced to leave by the end of the year.
Peabody Mayor Peter Torigian said yesterday he's interested in serving on the board.
Torigian said the potential merger with the North Shore vocational school is a "major opportunity" for improving services to students. Torigian would like to send his city's vocational students, who currently attend the city's own high school program, to a merged school.
The legislation includes several other refinements to the 1998 law abolishing Essex County government. Those include a transfer of the Essex Aggie land from the school to the state and a rule allowing the board of trustees to negotiate collective bargaining agreements without having to get state approval.
"It gives us a larger board that represents a broader geographic area ... and finally (clears) up some of the very weak parts that were passed in '98," Olson said. "It's a win-win for both the school as well as the taxpayer."