Harford County Board of Education members voted Monday night not to reappoint Melissa Hahn as vice president and instead voted board member Lauren Paige to the position.
Paige’s appointment followed the nomination and reappointment of President Aaron Poynton in a 9-1 vote, with board member Carol Mueller casting the dissenting vote.
Hahn was nominated by the board’s newest member, Mark Korn, for reappointment to the position, which was seconded by board member Diane Alvarez.
A second nomination was made by board member Carol Bruce for Paige to be the vice president. Paige declined the nomination — progressing the vote for Hahn’s reappointment.
All votes require six affirmative votes to move forward. Hahn’s reappointment failed after securing five affirmative votes from board members Diane Alvarez, Korn, Paige, Poynton and Hahn herself.
Board members Bruce, Mueller, Denise Perry, Wade Sewell and the new student member of the board, James McVicker, voted against the reappointment — reopening the floor for nominations.
Paige received a second nomination from McVicker, which, unlike the first time, she accepted.
“As vice president, my goal would be to lead with clarity, fairness and purpose,” Paige said before the vote. “I will do my best to listen carefully, speak honestly, act decisively in the best interest of our students, family and educators, always at the center.”
Her nomination passed unanimously.
Paige is one of three members of the board appointed to serve by the county executive and confirmed by the County Council. She and Poynton were reappointed to the board in June along with Korn, who was appointed to fill the position of former board member Terry Kocher, who did not submit an application for reappointment.
Hahn’s transition out of power on the board can be traced back to controversy in September after she called for the superintendent of Harford County Public Schools, Sean Bulson, to resign following the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Warren Grant inside Joppatowne High School.
After the shooting, board members were made aware of the fact that Joppatowne High had an insufficient number of lockers for students, prompting some to carry backpacks throughout the school. Grant’s killer, 16-year-old Jaylen Prince, was one of those students and was able to conceal a handgun in the backpack until he shot and killed Grant in a bathroom.
Prince was found guilty of first-degree murder among other charges in May.
The former vice president argued that Bulson knew of the locker shortage and “did nothing about it.” She made statements during board meetings about Bulson, stating that Grant’s death was “directly due to the negligence” on the part of Bulson and that he “chose to do nothing” until a child died.
Board members like Mueller and Bruce took issue with Hahn’s statements and her call for Bulson to resign. The board members publicly denounced Hahn and her decision to make the motion without consulting with the rest of the board and other actions.
A month after the September meeting when Hahn called for Bulson to resign, Mueller made a motion to add a vote to remove Hahn from the position of vice president to a board meeting agenda.
“The reason why I am asking for Mrs. Hahn’s removal is because she is supposed to be board leadership and I do not feel like she is leading this board when she goes off on her own two meetings in a row to tell an employee of the board that they have to resign, a personnel matter like that should be private,” Mueller said at the October meeting. “You have to look at how she has been acting as a leader to see why I want to have her removed as vice president.”
The vote received favorable votes from Mueller, Sewell, Bruce, Perry and the former student member of the board, Sasha Pazoki. Dissenting votes came from Alvarez, former board member Kocher, Paige and Poynton. Absent from the meeting at the time, Hahn and was unable to vote on the motion.
However, the motion to add a vote on Hahn’s removal from leadership was later deemed to be invalid, according to the board’s meeting policy.
“The motion only had five affirmative votes and was declared as passed when it needed six affirmative votes,” Poynton said in November, invalidating the motion. “Therefore, I am declaring that the motion was improperly declared and it did not, in fact, achieve the required majority vote to pass.”
Hahn will continue to serve as a board member. Her seat is up for reelection in 2026.
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