YARMOUTH — Four candidates are competing for three School Committee seats up for graps in the June 12 municipal election.

Laura Coroi is seeking re-election and is opposed by Jeffrey Kew, Newell Augur and Kate Barker Shub. Members Jeanne Rapone and Tim Wheaton are stepping down from the board.

All four candidates support the School Committee’s proposed $25 million budget and agreed the biggest challenge facing the School Department and its finances is a reduction in state funding while facing an increase in student enrollment. Each candidate also spoke in favor of the potential renovations and said the school renovation project would also be a good time to explore how security can be upgraded.

• Laura Coroi, 54, has lived in Yarmouth for 12 years and is finishing her first three-year term on the board.

She said she decided to run for re-election because serving on the board has shown her how important it is to not only advocate for her children, but for all families, while being “respectful of the taxpayers’ money.”

Coroi said her “project” on the School Committee has long been introducing foreign languages at a younger age. With this year’s budget strains, it couldn’t be included, but she hopes to keep working at it if re-elected.

“It is my big thing,” she said. “If I get another term I would like to see this implemented and I would push for it. … We are behind if we don’t do this.”

• Newell Augur, 51, has never run for office in Yarmouth after moving to town five years ago. He served on Brunswick’s Town Council from 2005-2008.

Augur is a product of public schools in southern Maine. He attended Deering High School, and his mother was a teacher in Portland for 20 years.

“I have three kids,” he said. “We’re fully invested in the Yarmouth public school system.”

Augur and Kew also said they would like to see increased foreign-language opportunities. Augur said this could be accomplished by implementing language courses sooner, or by expanding the options at the high school, perhaps adding German and Japanese classes.

Augur said school safety could first be improved from a state level, but in terms of improving safety as a town, he, like Coroi, would also like to see the schools focus on mental health.”There are only so many locks we can put on the door before we really start having to look at mental-health issues,” Augur said.

• Jeffrey Kew, 48, moved back to Maine from Connecticut two years ago. This is his first time seeking elected office, although he served on a charter revision commission and in several school volunteer positions in Connecticut.

Kew has children in first and third grades and said he wants what’s best for all kids in town and all of Yarmouth, including residents without kids in schools.

Kew said he thinks being “from away” could be an asset to the School Committee.

“I saw things that worked and didn’t work,” he said. “I think it’s good to have a diversity of experience on any board.”

In terms of something he’d like to see in the budget that wasn’t included, Kew said it’s important not to ask for too much when a school renovation bond may be coming down the pike in the next six months.

• Kate Barker Shub, 37, is a Yarmouth native. She has also never run for an elected office, but said she loves to volunteer in town.

“I look forward to bringing my voice as a Yarmouth native to the group,” she said. “I’m running because I love this town and these schools. … I’m so proud to be from Yarmouth and raising my family here.”

“Our schools are bursting at the seems and we must do something,” Barker Shub said. Since she graduated, she noted, grade sizes have doubled at Yarmouth Elementary School, but the facility looks the same.

Barker Shub said she would “absolutely support” a school resource officer and would like to see renovation plans incorporate improved security.

Jocelyn Van Saun can be contacted at 781-3661, ext. 183 or at:

jvansaun@theforecaster.net

Twitter @JocelynVanSaun

Read this story in The Forecaster.

Copy the Story Link