The nominations for two seats on Fairfield’s Maine School Administrative District 49 school board closed Friday at 3 p.m., with three candidates completing the papers: Danielle Boutin, Marlisa Golder and Joel Bouchard.
The election will take place June 8.
Danielle Boutin Contributed photo
This will be the first time the school board elections take place in June, as Fairfield moved the election so that the terms will align with the schools’ fiscal year.
Stewart Kinley currently holds one of the seats whose term is set to expire, but is not running for reelection. He served for several terms years ago, and came back for his most recent term to bring some institutional knowledge and stability after several board members resigned and others were new. Now, he feels he has done his job and achieved his goal.
“I think the board is quite stable now,” Kinley said. “I think there are a number of board members on there that now have the experience, and it’s a good board. SAD 49 is lucky to have the current board that they have.”
Boutin currently serves as chair of the school board and has been on the board for one term of three years, beginning in 2018. She previously served on the board from 2013-2015.
“When I graduated high school, I felt prepared for the world and felt that I had a great education through Lawrence and through MSAD 49, and I want to do it for my kids,” Boutin said. “My kids deserve the same education if not better than myself and my husband had. I think my nieces and nephews deserve that. I think all the students within the four towns deserve that.”
Boutin has two children in the district, in sixth and seventh grade. She grew up in Fairfield. She is the program coordinator for the Friends of Messalonskee, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving Messalonskee Lake, often known as Snow Pond.
Marlisa Golder Submitted photo
Golder works as a title clerk for the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles. She has four kids in the district, ranging in age from 7-18. Her kids motivated her to get involved with the school board, and seeing the realities of hybrid education during the pandemic only increased her drive.
“The biggest thing for me is my kids, because I do have four, and it’s an ever-changing process with education and what is best for them,” Golder said. “So being involved and being able to represent not just my kids but the community, the kids of the future, and being able to make sure they have what they need is really important for me. The decision to run, when I saw it, was kind of a no-brainer.”
Golder emphasized that she wants to be a bridge between the community and the school administration, and that she is always willing to listen to people’s opinions and go looking for additional information to solve the district’s unique challenges.
The final candidate, Bouchard, has a 9-year-old daughter at Benton Elementary School, and works at T-Mobile doing technical support. Community service is especially important to Bouchard, and he is in a place to invest his time in public service on the school board.
Joel Bouchard Contributed photo
“Now is not really the time to have people up there saying ‘This is what we’re going to do,’” Bouchard said. “People are really tired of that. What we need is time to listen — to listen to parents, to teachers, students, the community — we really need to achieve common goals together. And that’s why I want to have a role on the school board as a mediator between the constituents and MSAD 49. That way I can make sure our entire community as a whole is heard, not just the people on the school board, but really everyone.”
Bouchard said that while everyone is eager to return students to school full time, he wants to make sure that any return plan is sustainable so that the district doesn’t have to go back and forth on the issue.
Voting will take place June 8, from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., at the Fairfield community center. Absentee ballots for the election will be available beginning May 10, and the deadline for requesting one is June 3. For more information, see the Fairfield town website.
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