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The City of Cambridge Election Commission voted unanimously to reject a residency challenge against School Committee incumbent Caroline M. L. Hunter, allowing her to remain on the ballot this November.

The objection came from Missy E. Page, a CPS parent who alleged that Hunter’s summer residence in Oak Bluffs raised questions about whether she meets the city’s residency requirement.

Hunter, who joined the school committee in 2022, is a well-respected figure in the Cambridge school system. Before joining the committee, she spent more than three decades at Cambridge Public Schools as a teacher and administrator.

“She’s a legend in Cambridge,” Page said in an interview with The Crimson. “She’s just not a current resident as far as the information that I found.”

The Tuesday morning hearing addressed a challenge to Hunter’s candidacy under a requirement that local school committee members be a resident of the district they oversee.

Deputy City Solicitor Elliot Veloso started the hearing by defining residency, or domicile, as “a place where a person dwells and which is the center of their domestic, social and civic life.”

“Residence is not where someone thinks they reside or want to be. It is what the objective facts show, and that requires an assessment based on the totality of the circumstances,” Veloso said, noting that evidence can include time spent in a location, voter registration, and civic or social ties.

Page’s objection to Hunter centered on her ownership of a home in Oak Bluffs, a town on Martha’s Vineyard. In the hearing, Page pointed to shifts in Hunter’s voter registration between Cambridge and Oak Bluffs, as well as her long record of social and political activity in Oak Bluffs.

“I’m not objecting to Miss Hunter’s contributions to Cambridge. I’m not objecting to or questioning her ability to have more than one property in Massachusetts,” Page said in her testimony. “This objection is based on the stated rules for running for elected office in Cambridge — you must be a registered voter and therefore a resident.”

“This rule must apply to all candidates running for office in Cambridge, regardless of their previous contributions to Cambridge,” she added.

In her defense, Hunter told the commission that she has lived in Cambridge since 1980 and described her Oak Bluffs property as a summer residence, not her primary home. She emphasized her decades of work in Cambridge schools and civic life, framing her candidacy as a continuation of long-standing service to the city and its students. That service has received recognition from both Massachusetts and national educators associations.

“I stand here for my word, for my integrity and my service, not only to Cambridge, but service anywhere,” Hunter said.

Seven witnesses testified in support of Hunter at the hearing, including colleagues, neighbors, and other members of the public. Among the seven witnesses was city councilor and former school committee member Ayesha M. Wilson, who emphasized her deep personal and professional relationship with Hunter.

“I also, as a kid from Cambridge, had the honor and privilege of not only being educated by Miss Caroline Hunter, being a classmate to her daughter,” Wilson said.

“I sit here today as a city councilor who has the support of my dear colleague, friend, mentor, and good being in our community to just say that her voice on the school committee is needed, it is wanted,” Wilson said.

After an hour and a half of testimony, the Cambridge Election Commission ultimately voted to deny Page’s challenge, with one of the members adding that there was “a very high bar to disqualify someone from running for office.”

—Staff writer Ayaan Ahmad can be reached at ayaan.ahmad@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @AyaanAhmad2024.