Students Play Role in City Inauguration Ceremony
MHS senior and football captain Chris Bucknam is one of several students participating in the 2012 inaugural ceremony.
– Allison Goldsberry
Several Medford students will be participating in the city’s 2012 inaugural ceremony taking place on Monday, January 2.
On this day- the last official day of the holiday break from school- students will play a role in an event where the Mayor and incoming members of the City Council and School Committee are officially sworn into office.
Medford High School junior Maxwell Kennedy-Reid will escort the Medford School Committee while MHS senior Veronica Atocha Alvarez will escort the Medford City Council. McGlynn Middle School eighth grader Sean Freeman has the distinct honor of escorting Mayor Michael McGlynn and his wife, Sheila, along with Associate Justice J. Elizabeth Cremens, Inaugural Committee Chair Ben Averbook, and other guests into the Council Chamber, where the event is taking place.
The Pledge of Allegiance will be delivered by McGlynn Middle School seventh graders Joseph Farah, Jon Minotti, Scott Harris and Benjamin Candee, who distinguished themselves at the December 19 School Committee meeting with a well-delivered presentation on the need to update the school district’s technology.
Following the Pledge of Allegiance, the MHS Chorus will sing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Later in the event, the chorus will also sing “God Bless America.”
MHS senior and football captain Chris Bucknam, who was recognized as the MIAA/NESN Student-Athlete of the Month in September, will introduce the families of the incoming City Councilors and School Committee members.
The inaugural ceremony is taking place at 10AM in the Council Chambers at Medford City Hall and will be immediately followed by a reception.
Everyone in the community is invited to attend the ceremony, which will also be broadcast live on Channel 16, the city’s municipal channel.
Mayor Michael McGlynn, the longest-serving mayor in the state, will be sworn in for his thirteenth consecutive term.
Six City Councilors were re-elected- Robert Maiocco, Breanna Lungo-Koehn, Michael Marks, Paul Camuso, Robert Penta, and Frederick Dello Russo, Jr. They will be joined by freshman councilor Rick Caraviello, who was elected to his first two-year term on the Council in November.
Two new School Committee members will receive the oath of office, Erin DiBenedetto and Robert E. Skerry, Jr. DiBenedetto has been elected to her first term while Skerry, a long-time School Committee member who was not re-elected in 2009, earned a seat back on the Committee this fall. Four incumbents were re-elected to the School Committee, Ann Marie Cugno, Paulette Van der Kloot, George Scarpelli, and John Falco.