Michelle Orlando is back on the Westport School Committee, five months after she lost her seat in April's elections.

A joint meeting of the Westport Select Board and school committee voted 7-0 Monday evening, with one abstention, to appoint Orlando to a vacant seat on the committee created when former member Nancy Tavares resigned her seat in mid-July.

Orlando defeated fellow hopeful Cynthia Kozakiewicz, who has little public service experience in Westport but told members of both boards Monday that she ran "to give a different perspective on the board."

Saying she would not run for a full term next April, Kozakiewicz nevertheless said she would be an effective committee member during her six-month appointment, if chosen:

"I just thought it would be nice to have a different perspective" on the committee, she said. "We need to get our children to be excited about being educated in Westport."

Enrollment and attrition figures clearly show that the school system is lacking and needs improvement, she said.

"I don't think we're going to have a great school system until we get our enrollment up. I think I can offer a fresh perspective."

Orlando said in her remarks Monday that she is excited to resume the work she began upon first being elected in 2019. Much of the committee's agenda went sideways when the COVID-19 pandemic hit soon after her arrival, she said, and she much looks forward to getting back to business.

"I don't think three years is enough," she said. "Obviously, I want to continue."

Tavares, whose vacant seat Orlando fills, Tavares, was elected to the school committee in 2014 and was last re-elected in June 2020. She was two thirds of her way through her three-year term when she submitted a letter of resignation on Friday, July 13. There was no explanation included in her resignation letter.