Running unopposed for the open school committee seat alongside Cliff Sylvia is longtime Wareham teacher and administrator Mel Lazarus.

"I retired last June and felt that I wanted to still be involved with the school system and I have qualifications that others don't have," Lazarus said on why he chose to run for School Committee.

Lazarus was a teacher at Wareham High School since 1996, teaching history, law, government, constitutional law and economics among other topics.

He's spent time on a committee that rewrote teacher evaluations and has been a part of principal, superintendent and teacher hiring committees.

"I negotiated for the Wareham Educators Association's last four contracts so I understand contracts and the budget," he said.

Lazrarus said his top priority on the School Committee would be to promote the schools

"In this position I want to change the image of the school system. If we can do that we're going to be headed on the right road," Lazarus said.

"We have to promote the school system from a position of strength, not weakness. I'm all in favor of anything that promotes the school and the high school-which is the showpiece."

Lazarus said at a public meeting in September, only one person knew that the high school was a Level One school, putting it in the highest-performing group in the state school classification system. Level One means the school is meeting its improvement goals on the MCAS.

"It's hogwash that kids will get a better education in ORR than they would at Wareham High School," he said, acknowledging that Wareham is losing some of it's best students to ORR and Upper Cape Cod Tech.

Lazarus said in terms of the budget he was in favor of the superintendent's plan for elementary school reconfiguration, but had reservations about busing young kids all the way across town.

"Little kids get antsy," he said.

Another budget priority of his would be to figure out how to stop cutting personnel in the school system.

"We can't warehouse kids, we've got to teach them. And when you cut personal you end up cutting the last hire. We lose talented, young teachers that way," Lazarus said. "That's the shame of budget cuts. Those young teachers are the ones with energy."

The April 1 election will have Lazarus and current School Committee member Cliff Sylvia --who attended Taunton High School at the same time-- running for two three-year terms.

Lazarus moved and built a house in Wareham in 2001 and has been living in and out of the town since 1951.

"I think it's great I see former students all the time," Lazarus said. "I love Wareham, it's a beautiful community."