By Susan Ovans

The Hull School Committee voted Monday evening to promote Hull High School Principal Michael Devine to the helm of the town's three public schools.

The original school board vote was 3-2 in favor of Devine. Chairman Eric Hipp and board members Kelley Huxtable and Jennifer Fleming voted for him.

SchoolCom members Stephanie Peters and David Twombly cast their votes for Assistant Superintendent Judith Kuehn. When it became clear that she could not win a board majority, Peters and Twombly made the vote for Devine unanimous.

During the course of four hours of interviews and deliberations, board members repeatedly spoke of how conflicted they were in having to choose between two stellar in-house candidates, agreeing among themselves that they could not make a bad choice.

Board members credited current Superintendent Kathleen Tyrell for having successfully mentored two colleagues to prepare them to lead school districts of their own.

After 10 years as Hull's superintendent, Tyrell will retire next month.

A full account of Monday's meeting will be published in Thursday's Hull Times.