Wiscasset’s school committee on July 23 kept Jason Putnam as chair and made Jodi Hardwick vice chair. 

“Let’s have a nice new year, everybody, please. I think we can all do better, I know I can do better,” Putnam said.

“I wish we can have a more peaceful year here at Wiscasset schools.” Starting last fall, when then-Wiscasset Middle High School Principal Gina Stevens was placed on leave and eventually was dismissed, residents spoke out for and against the committee’s and Superintendent of Schools Kim Andersson’s handling of matters, and Putnam last year said some people’s behavior in town had been “despicable.”

As vice chair, Hardwick succeeds Desiree Bailey, who did not seek re-election to the committee.

The meeting was the first for one of the committee’s two new members, Tracey Whitney, since their election in June. The other new member, Jonathan Barnes, was absent. So the panel put off an orientation by Drummond Woodsum law firm. Andersson and the committee discussed possibly holding the training Aug. 19, the night before the panel’s next monthly meeting. 

At the Aug. 20 meeting, the committee will take up the topic of recorded Zoom meetings, Andersson said in response to a question during public comment. 

Members made Whitney their second of two representatives on the town’s ad hoc future of the schools committee. She joins Putnam on that panel.