Windham residents check in to vote Tuesday at the the high school. Mikayla Patel / Lakes Region Weekly
Marjorie Govoni and Joseph Kellner were the winners Tuesday in a four-way race for two seats on the Windham-Raymond School Board.
The vote was fairly narrow, with incumbent Govoni receiving 2,803 votes; Kellner, 2,574; Justin Whynot, 2,306; and Dawn Miller, 2,089.
Govoni
“I’m glad,” Govoni said in an interview Wednesday. “The current board will be well-equipped to continue supporting staff and students,” she said.
“My big concern is education, safety of students and staff and making sure our priorities are correct,” she said. “I’m a firm believer of transparency.”
Some parents have called into question the RSU 14 board’s transparency, she said.
Whynot and Miller are aligned with a group of parents that has spoken out to oppose certain books in the high school library and policies pertaining to transgender students. The parents group has said at School Board meetings that they are frustrated with board members’ approach to issues and what they see as the board’s failure to represent what parents want for their children.
“I think if they came to more of our meetings and stayed for the whole meeting they’d have a better idea of the things we do,” Govoni said.
“I think we’re going in the right direction. I would be a dreamer if I thought everyone was looking for the same results, and so I think we have to work better as a board so we can come to a decision that everyone can live with,” she said. “If people come and they have an agenda, you have to leave it at the door and look at the bigger picture of what’s best. If we don’t all agree, we’ll have to agree to disagree, but hopefully we can agree enough to all work together.”
Kellner
Kellner said he’s excited with his win and is “looking forward to next steps.”
“It’s time for me to take the things I’ve been saying in the campaign and put them into action. It’s time for listening and common ground,” he said.
After standing with the other School Board candidates outside the polls Tuesday and and in speaking with voters, Kellner said, he came away feeling that “we agree on a lot more than we don’t agree on. We can find some middle ground.”
Other ballot items
Windham residents also voted in favor of a recall ordinance that introduces a process to remove city officials from office. The vote was 3,448 to 2,524.
This recall ordinance was initiated by a group of residents, including Whynot and Zac Eklund, who said they were misrepresented by those in office and wanted a method to remove officials should that be deemed necessary.
The recall ordinance was a subject of controversy, with Town Council members concerned about its wording and that the number of signatures required to hold a recall election and the number of votes required to remove someone from office were too low.
Mark Morrison won reelection to his at-large seat on the Windham Town Council with 4,204 votes to write-in candidate Eklund’s 947 votes.
Incumbent Brett Jones won the East District council seat with 4,335 votes and Linda Morrell was reelected as town clerk with 5,324 votes. Both were unopposed.
A total of 6,124 ballots were cast on Nov. 7, according to the town clerk’s office.
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