Wiscasset's new school committee has room for five of the seven candidates on the January 7, 2014, ballot.

All but Eugene Stover and Glen T. Craig face contests; the two are the only candidates for the two terms that expire in June 2015.

Voters will choose between Colleen Bennett and Wenonah Wirick for a seat whose term runs out in June 2014. Sharon Nichols, Douglas Smith and Steven Smith (no relation) are on the ballot for two seats with terms that end in June 2016.

Absentee ballots are available at the town office until January 2.

Election winners will go on to plan Wiscasset's first school year outside Regional School Unit 12. The withdrawal voters approved in November takes effect July 1, 2014.

The Wiscasset Newspaper interviewed all the candidates about why they're running, what they bring to the table and their thoughts on the future of Wiscasset's schools.

Colleen Bennett

Bennett said she didn't vote to leave the school district, but now that it's happening, she feels it's important to include parents of current students on the committee, and to make sure students' needs are not forgotten.

“Taxes are important, yes, but not for the compromise of the kids,” Bennett said. “That's where I stand.”

Bennett is the mother of a 2007 Wiscasset High School graduate and a current Wiscasset Primary School student.

She is the officer manager at Wiscasset Ford, where she has worked for 20 years doing payroll and other financial tasks. That experience will benefit the school committee, she said.

“Financially, I can get down to the core of it, and help the team in determining what the best course is for our school system,” said Bennett, a Wiscasset resident for 22 years.

“My main priority are the kids. I want to make sure that their education does not suffer, and I would like to get the community and parents and even the children involved in a new, positive perspective, because I think a lot of it is about attitude.”

Bennett said she would like to see all three of Wiscasset's schools stay open, but will not oppose consolidation if it's in students' best interest. “I will keep an open mind,” she said.

Glen Craig

With three children who have gone through the school system and two in it now, Craig said he is running because he is tired of sitting on the sidelines. “And I want to try to help our community make a difference with our children's education, in any way possible of doing that.”

Craig owns a State Farm insurance office in Rumford and a local business, Glen B's Cookies. He said he has a business acumen for doing research and other due diligence to make decisions.

“Basically, being uncomfortable is comfortable for me, because it allows me to learn something I don''t already know and possibly help somebody else learn something and make a decision more readily,” he said.

A Wiscasset resident since 1988, Craig said if he's elected, he wants the views of the public to be as important as those of committee members. “I think a community attitude is what is needed, and I think Wiscasset is ready for it.”

Craig said he would need to researach the pros and cons of consolidataion. “Whatever makes the most sense to stay within the education we want to teach our kids ... we need to figure out what works the best. But I don't have an etched in stone opinion.

“This is wide open .... We're making the history.”

Sharon Nichols

Nichols is running because she would like Wiscasset's school system to return to the top of the state's ranks.

“It's difficult for me to live in a town where we don't address the issue of our children,” she said.

On the Wiscasset Educational Research Panel, she studied Wiscasset's options for education.

Nichols was a teacher for 34 years. “I've had a lot of experience preparing school budgets, department budgets and chaired and worked on numerous educational committees and projects.”

She started the first career programs at Medomak Valley High School, Georges Valley High School and at Wiscasset High School, where she worked as a teacher-coordinator from 1996-2003.

Nichols said she wants teachers to have adequate supplies. “I think that's essential, and I don't think they've received what they've needed,” while the town has been in RSU 12, she said.

“And I want the teachers to know that I'm aware that we have very dedicated, highly qualified teachers.”

A Wiscasset resident for more than 40 years, Nichols said she would recommend closing the middle school building, making the primary school kindergarten through grade six and the high school grades seven through twelve.

“We need to simply use our space more effectively, and spend our money on children, instead of building space.”

Douglas Smith

Smith said he is running because education is one of the most important factors besides family in the development of a child, and he's been distressed by a decline in the quality of a Wiscasset education coupled with huge tax increases.

“The only way that we can improve education and maintain a school system is by consolidating into two buildings, because of the excess square footage,” Smith said. “Over 25 percent of what we spend is for empty space.

“We need to start putting the money back into education, and reducing the burden to the taxpayer.”

Having grades seven through twelve in one building would also enable older students to mentor the younger ones, Smith said.

Smith has more than 30 years' involvement in education, including as CEO of a bank that supported public schools and universities; he was vice chairman of Wiscasset's school board; chairman of a 2007 committee that had recommended closing the middle school; chairman of a citizens' advisory group for Wiscasset, Alna and Westport Island, on school consolidation; and founding chairman of the RSU 12 formation committee.

Smith said he had recommended against Wiscasset joining RSU 12.

He was also the founder and chairman of the Wiscasset Educational Research Panel.

“I have an intimate knowledge of the Wiscasset school system,” he said.

Steven Smith

Smith said he is running because, with a daughter who graduated from Wiscasset High School and a son who's a sophomore, he would like Wiscasset to still offer a kindergarten through grade 12 education. “I think it deserves a fresh perspective to look at it and see if that's possible to do.”

Smith is director of sales for Gelato Fiasco and a former substitute teacher in Wiscasset schools. “So I've been inside the school system,” he said.

His 18 years as operations director and programming director for Clear Channel radio stations in Maine gave him experience with a multi-million-dollar budget that was getting smaller and smaller. “I had to make a lot of hard choices, so I have a lot of experience cutting a budget.”

Smith, a Wiscasset resident since 2000, said he thinks it's a little premature to be looking at closing any schools. “It's important that we put a plan together and let the town decide what they want to do and what services they want to offer the kids.

“Obviously, the class sizes are much smaller than they were built for, so I don't think there's any way that three different campuses continue to work.”

“There has to be consolidation, but I think we should do everything we can to still offer K to 12.”

Eugene Stover

Stover said his background in education was the main reason he decided to run.

He taught in Wiscasset for 46 years, and was Wiscasset High School's assistant principal for more than 20 years. He served nine years on the Wiscasset school committee, two as chairman; and four years on RSU 12's board. He served on the RSU board's policy committee and as both its and Wiscasset's representative to Bath's vocational program.

“I have a pretty good background in what should be done and how it should be done,” Stover said. “I think it's what we need desperately right now, is people who have the expertise right now to set up a school system. It's not like you can crank it up and go. You've got to start from scratch.

“That's not going to be easy, and it should be done by people who know what they're doing.”

He said he has the time, energy and interest to serve on the committee, and feels he could make a contribution.

Stover, who has lived in Wiscasset 60 years, would like the new school committee to give students better opportunities for learning; maintain a good teaching force; and stabilize and try to lower the tax burden.

“The cost of education is too high,” he said.

Wenonah Wirick

Wirick said she wants to serve on the committee because she has a huge interest in children and the community.

Serving on RSU 12's board the last year and a half has given her insight into current problems and gotten her to keep an open mind when discussing an issues, she said.

“You have to put aside your preconceived ideas and really listen to everything fresh, and make a decision based on what is presented to you.”

Her mediation skills as a lawyer would transfer well to the new school committee's work, she said.

One focus needs to be on providing all children with an equal opportunity to learn, said Wirick, a Wiscasset resident since 2005. She said she was very poor growing up, but her teachers and administrators helped shepherd her through her school years.

“I want children to have high aspirations ... to feel they can do anything if they set their mind to it and make good choices. And we need to provide children with the resources to make those choices.”

The committee also needs to look out for taxpayers' interests, she said.

“I think we're all feeling the pinch ... so I think it's about finding that balance of providing the best education possible but ... being realistic with a budget that doesn't drain us as taxpayers.”