By SANDY McGEE

CUMBERLAND — The election for a new vice chairman sharply divided the School Committee into two factions Thursday, when two members were nominated for the open position.

At the start of Thursday night’s School Committee meeting, Donald J. Costa resigned as vice chairman of the committee, citing personal reasons for the departure. He will continue to remain on the board as an elected member.
“It (the resignation) is because of personal issues,” said Costa. “I submitted this resignation a month ago.”
Costa said the resignation was submitted in order to care for his ailing mother, who recently died. The resignation went into effect immediately Thursday.
Costa, who is running for his eighth term in office, was elected to the post of vice chair this past October, when veteran School Committee member Robert C. Thibodeau stepped down from the board’s second in command position.
Immediately after Costa’s resignation on Thursday night, Karen MacBeth motioned to appoint fellow School Committee member Earl T. Wood as the new vice chair. Wood is the only current School Committee member running unopposed for re-election. 
School Committee Chairman Frederic C. Crowley said MacBeth was out of order. MacBeth repeated the motion, which was second by Costa.
Thibodeau then nominated W. David Wagner for the role of vice-chair. Crowley seconded the nomination.
After a motion to discuss, which was brought forth by Lisa Beaulieu, was denied, a roll call vote was held for each candidate.
The nomination for Wood failed with a 3-3 vote, with Wagner, Thibodeau and Crowley voting in opposition.
The nomination for Wagner also failed with a 3-3 vote, with Costa, MacBeth and Wood in opposition of the appointment.
Beaulieu, who would have been the tiebreaker, abstained from both roll call votes.
Members then dropped the issue and moved on to the next agenda item.
“Just from witnessing what just happened, from working on committees, you usually keep going until you have a vice chair,” said John V. Gibbons, who is running for the District 3 seat on the School Committee against incumbent Costa.
Later that same evening, the issue of the vice-chair vacancy was addressed again.
“I’m disappointed that we did not discuss this,” Beaulieu said. “This just seemed like a race to put a name in the hat.”
Wagner then motioned to re-consider the vote, stating he would recant his own vote for himself. Crowley said that Wagner was out of order.
The meeting adjourned a short time later without a vice chairman elected.