So now a “process” is underway to seek a replacement for outgoing Ward 1 School Committee member Bastardi. But just what kind of a process are we talking about here?

We know that Superintendent Pierantozzi will be gathering applications – and resumes – of people interested in the position and presenting them to the sitting Committee members. We wonder, though, just what it is that makes an applicant worthy of being accepted as a member of this august body.

Are we looking for educators, professional administrators – just what, exactly? Is an everyday, hard working, tax paying, average parent of a kid going to a school in Somerville in the running at all?

Is there a certain litmus test for ideological compatibility with the present committee members? In other words, should “all others” need not apply?

A long standing precedent was scuttled when the Committee so discourteously disregarded Maureen Bastardi’s recommendation for her temporary replacement, in favor of this makeshift “process” that is about to be played out.

The good part is that this will all unfold under the unflinching scrutiny of the public eye. As distasteful as it may be to be a witness to such “processes” in motion, it is vital that we do our parts as spoilers in this game of political intrigue.

That, fellow citizens, is how the sausage is really made.