The Planning Board and School Committee races in the May 17 annual town election are crowded this year. In total, eight candidates are running in three contested races for five seats. Here’s a look at the field.
PLANNING BOARD
Two seats are open on the Planning Board.
Tim Grandy is running unopposed for a five-year term.
Tom Jacintho and Frank Mand are running for a one-year term to finish out the term of Birgitta Kuehn, who resigned last year when she moved to Chicago. Joseph Higgins, who was appointed to fill Kuehn’s seat until this election, is not running.
Tom Jacintho
Jacintho recalled a recent morning when his Cedarville house rattled with vibrations and the air was filled with the sound of alarms from trucks backing up at the 34-acre site of a business park under construction at Hedges Pond Road.
For him, it was a call to action of sorts.
“I’ve got to do something,” Jacintho said he told himself. “I’ve got to get involved.”
Jacintho said many residents in in his close-knit neighborhood were unaware that the development was moving forward.
He decided to start acting as a bridge between Town Hall and people in his part of town who are too busy to pay attention to what goes on in the seat of the town’s government.
Jacintho, 42, is a paramedic and lieutenant with the Hingham Fire Department. He has also worked in the building trades, a background he said could make him well suited to serving on the Planning Board. So, he decided to run.
As a newbie to Plymouth politics, he thought the one-year term would be a good way to learn about how the Planning Board works.
“If I asked the voters give me a year, let me show you how serious I am, I feel like they’d be more inclined to say let’s give this guy a chance,” he said.
Jacintho supports a land bank, which Town Meeting approved by a margin of one vote last fall. It’s designed to acquire property for open space and recreation, affordable housing, and municipal facilities such as schools, fire and police stations, and Department of Public Works facilities. The land bank still must be approved by the state Legislature, after which residents OK it through a referendum.
Frank Mand
Mand, a veteran candidate for local government office, said he is running this time because his perspective is needed on the Planning Board.
“The focus of my life has been more and more our unique environment and what a key role it can and should play in our future,” he said. Mand doesn’t believe that town leaders understand how Plymouth’s natural resources can be an economic driver.
“The more space you have in preservation, the less you have in pipes and infrastructure, and schools, and school children, and all those things that cost much more than what they bring to the community,” he said.
Mand, 70, served on the Planning Board from 2021 to 2023.
He supports the town’s proposed acquisition of Atlantic Country Club, which has signed a $20 million purchase and sale agreement with developers. The town, however, has right of first refusal.
Mand said he would like to change the way the Planning Board is notified of proposed development projects.
“There’s so many projects that even the Planning Board doesn’t see until they’re almost completely hatched, fully formed,” he said, with developers meeting with staff “for months” before the board is given “a couple of weeks” to make a decision.
Mand said developers should meet with the public first and then the Planning Board before Town Hall staff begins negotiations.
“It would put more pressure on the developer to do the right thing, but it would also make the people feel they truly were being listened to, and that’s so important in this day and age, when nobody trusts government, even on the local level,” he said.
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
There are two three-year seats up for grabs on the School Committee, along with a race for a one-year seat.
School Committee Chair Luis Pizano is running for another three-year term. He faces Michaela der Kinderen, Paul Samargedlis, and Hunter Young. Voters can choose two candidates.
Michaela der Kinderen
Der Kinderen is a senior at Plymouth North High School, where she has been part of the tennis, volleyball, swimming, and cheer teams.
For the last three years, she was the runner-up in the school’s Poetry Out Loud contest.
Der Kinderen, 18, is vice president of the debate club and serves on the school council.
She works part time as a barista and last summer was a team leader at Camp Invention, a camp where she taught children in kindergarten and first grade about science.
She plans to commute to Stonehill College in Easton from her home in Plymouth starting this fall, she said.
A recent conversation with the mother of an elementary school student provided some of der Kinderen’s motivation for running for School Committee. The student had been struggling with mental health since Covid, the mother told her. Until then, she said, she had not realized that children that young struggled with mental health.
If elected to the School Committee, she would like to ensure that all grades receive access to counseling and other mental health services.
“If we don’t provide these…we’re going to see a decrease in grades, in test scores, in graduation rates,” she said. “If you are struggling in your life, how are you going to find motivation to continue keeping your grades up, wanting to do your homework after school?”
Der Kinderen said students are always under pressure, some of it by their own doing. She cited her own decision to take Advanced Placement biology this year. Making it easier for teachers to provide extra support to students could help ease some of the stress, she said.
“I personally know and understand those struggles as a student,” she said, “and I don’t want others to go through those issues like I have.”
“I want students to have a place inside school where they feel safe, where they feel like they can share their true thoughts and opinions, whether it’s their personal life or it’s about classwork,” she said.
As for the school budget, der Kinderen said, she would pay particular attention to ensuring that the schools continue to prioritize investing in educators’ professional growth.
Luis Pizano
Pizano is running for his second three-year term.
He considers the budget the biggest challenge facing Plymouth Public Schools.
“We are every year fighting to just maintain level service,” he said. “We’re not even talking about improving services or adding additional services. I feel fortunate that Plymouth is relatively supportive. We always get overwhelming support for our school budget from Town Meeting.”
Last month, Town Meeting approved a $127 million budget for fiscal year 2026, which begins July 1.
Pizano, 50, is proud that the School Committee approved giving teachers the “largest raises ever” in last year’s three-year contract.
“It’s a very competitive environment with no shortage of other districts that staff members can work at throughout the South Shore,” he said.
He also cites his calls to reform the student dress code, which he called “antiquated” and “sexist.”
“Very, very few rules…applied to men, so very [it was] one-sided,” he said. “It shouldn’t be a girl’s problem that someone is distracted by something that they’re wearing.”
Pizano said the School Committee has remained “drama-free,” trying to focus on its core responsibilities, such as managing the budget, and not “overstepping” when it comes to issues regarding the curriculum or teacher hiring decisions.
“The School Committee is doing a good job of keeping the focus on the right things, making sure that our teachers have what they need to be successful, that we have buildings that are suitable for our students.”
Paul Samargedlis
Samargedlis said he served for nine years on the Norwood School Committee, which he chaired, before moving to Plymouth 10 years ago.
He has a son who attends Indian Brook Elementary School, a daughter at Plymouth South Middle School, and another daughter at Plymouth South High School.
“I like this staff and this administration,” he said. “They’ve been doing right by my kids.”
Samargedlis, 54, said one challenge the School Committee faces is the expiration of a $600,000 state grant for pre-kindergarten education. The grant supports special education and related services for students in private pre-schools.
“Where’s that money going to come from?” he said.
(Superintendent Christopher Campbell said the school system is applying for additional funding for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1.)
Samargedlis supports extracurricular activities beyond sports, such as theater, as well as a rigorous curriculum.
Hunter Young
Young said curriculum decisions should be left to teachers and administrators, but he would like to add two graduation requirements: separate courses in financial literacy andcivic engagement. When he attended Plymouth South High School, he took both courses as electives.
Young, 19, said wants to change the system’s approach to sex education. Currently, he said, parents must opt out of sex education classes and surveys for their children. He would like to change that to an opt-in policy.
He cited a recent controversy in Burlington where parents of middle schoolers who had asked to opt out of a Youth Risk Behavior Survey for their children found that their children took the survey – which contained sexually explicit questions -nonetheless.
Supt. Campbell said Plymouth students have not recently completed that survey, but in the past have had the opportunity to opt out of it and similar surveys, as they do with any part of the sex education curriculum.
Young also wants to change policy regarding transgender athletes. He supports H. 297, proposed state legislation which would exempt students on single-sex teams from having to play against teams with transgender athletes. The bill would also protect coaches who forfeit games because an opposing team has a transgender athlete.
“Coaches should be empowered to protect their athletes, and I think the athletes should be able to protect themselves, if they want, without fear of losing their varsity status,” Young said.
Young said the School Committee could implement a policy similar to the state bill.
Young works for the nonprofit Leadership Institute, helping college students organize conservative clubs he describes as “focused on free speech on campus.”
He first ran for School Committee last year.
In the other race for School Committee, Christina Bryant and Deborah Dugan are competing for a one-year term to finish out the vacancy left when Michelle Badger was elected as a state representative in November.
Christina Bryant
Bryant, who was appointed in January to fill the seat until the May 17 election, said aging buildings are the biggest challenge facing the school system. Last month, Town Meeting appropriated $2 million to pay for a feasibility study to replace or renovate Cold Spring Elementary School, built in 1951, and Hedge Elementary School, built in 1910.
Bryant, 44, also said the budget is a major challenge – in particularly when it involves meeting the needs of academic programs while accommodating expanding technical education offerings.
“The programs continue to grow, and with that growth, we need to provide the space for people to fully learn,” she said.
Prior to joining the School Committee, Bryant served on the Plymouth Public Schools’ Diversity Committee. She is vice chair of the Plymouth No Place for Hate Committee, and chief operating officer of a shelter for women and children experiencing homelessness in Boston.
When she was appointed to the School Committee, Bryant said she was motivated to apply by her concern for accessibility and equity in public schools. She noted the growing needs of students who speak a language other than English at home.
Bryant also spoke about what she perceives as significant differences between the town’s two high schools.
“As a parent of five children who have all been students in the district, I found that depending on what side of town you live on provides a different trajectory for the student,” she told the Select Board and School Committee at the time of her appointment. She wants students who move from the Plymouth South High School district to Plymouth North’s to have access to the same opportunities, programming, and curriculum.
“My experience has been different navigating from South to North,” Bryant said in January. “That should not be the case.”
Deborah Dugan
Dugan applied for the School Committee in January, when Bryant was appointed.
She served on school boards in New Jersey for 12 years before moving to Plymouth.
“I represent a large portion of the population here in Plymouth, and those people need to have a voice,” she said. “People who love the country and who believe that we live in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where the Pilgrims came in 1620 and how they started the greatest nation on the face of the Earth.”
She said children need to be taught “the biblical heritage of America.”
Dugan, 76, said she opposes “revisionist history.” She said it bothers her that School Committee meetings begin with an acknowledgement that the Wampanoag were the first people to live in what is now Plymouth.
Dugan also said she opposes “the sexualization of young children” in schools.
“I believe that God created man for woman and woman for man and to teach things that are different from that [is] inappropriate,” she said.
She said that “science should be based on fact.”
“We’re supposed to be good stewards of God’s creation, but I don’t think we’re supposed to scare children,” she said.
Asked if being good stewards means mitigating climate change, she said “the climate does change” and that “God’s in control of the weather.”
Dugan supports technical education as an option for students not on a college track. In high school, she said, her daughter took a wood shop class. Because of that introduction, when she moved to Boston, she attended the North Bennet Street School and became a cabinetmaker.
OTHER BOARDS
Arthur Desloges is running unopposed for a five-year term on the Redevelopment Authority.
Lisa Reilly is running unopposed for a five-year term on the Housing Authority.
Steve Triffleti is running unopposed for re-election as Town Moderator.
BALLOT QUESTIONS
There are two questions on the May 17 ballot. Voters will decide – in a binding ballot question – whether to abandon the civil service process for hiring police officers. In a non-binding question, they will weigh in on whether to urge town officials to press the state to stop Holtec International from evaporating treated radioactive wastewater from the former Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Manomet.
TOWN MEETING REPRESENTATIVES
Voters will elect one-third of the 162 members of Town Meeting, three members from each of the town’s 18 precincts.
Last week, the Independent published a story on the candidates for Select Board. For information on how to vote, go here.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org.