Six Run For Two Wiscasset School Committee Seats

Six people are seeking two three-year terms on the Wiscasset School Committee.

Appearing on the ballot for the two available seats will be incumbent Indriani Demers, Jonathan Barnes, Elizabeth Kyle, Gardiner Leighton, Douglas Merrill, and Tracey Whitney.

Desiree Bailey is not seeking reelection.

Also on the ballot in Wiscasset’s municipal election this year are three two-year terms on the Wiscasset Select Board (see related story), one two-year term and three three-year terms on the budget committee, and one one-year term and one three-year on the Wiscasset Water District Board of Trustees.

The polls will be open at the Wiscasset Community Center from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, June 11.

Jonathan Barnes

Barnes is a patrol officer with the Wiscasset Police Department and served as the Wiscasset School District’s school resource officer from 2022 to 2024.

He served in the Maine Army National Guard and attended Kennebec Valley Community College  for  emergency medical technician training. He also attended the Maine Criminal Justice Academy for corrections and law enforcement and received certification in crisis intervention through the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Barnes said he is running for school committee because of overwhelming support from the community to take on the position. While working with the school, Barnes said he was able to build relationships with many community members, and he wants to be a voice for them on the committee.

“I think I would offer a unique viewpoint,” said Barnes.

If elected, Barnes would like to address school safety, budgeting, and recruitment and retention of staff and students. As a law enforcement officer, Barnes said he believes he has a unique perspective on things such as school safety.

Barnes said a strength the school department has is its dedicated and high quality teachers, education technicians, and support staff.

More than anything, Barnes said he would like to help build a community within the schools and “make it a safe fun place for kids to come learn and be heard.”

Indriani ‘Ina’ Demers

Demers has been a  teacher at East End Community School in Portland since 2000. Prior to this, she was a substitute teacher at Wiscasset Primary School from 1991 to 1999.

Demers has served on the Wiscasset School Committee for six years. She is on the Maine School Board Association Board of Directors and is part of the Maine Education Association Instruction and Professional Development  Committee and Resolutions Committee. She is also the director of the Maine chapter of Make Us Visible, an organization that works to find solutions for violence against Asian Americans.

Demers said she recognizes that the COVID-19 pandemic has had lasting effects on the education system, specifically student and staff morale. She believes that developing curriculum to include more social emotional learning will benefit the education system in Wiscasset.

“Social emotional learning after COVID-19 is more important than any other subjects to boost up students learning,” said Demers. “I feel it myself. I feel for the teachers, but importantly now is to take care of their emotional, social, and mental health.”

If reelected, Demers would like to address staff shortages, as well as the worsening economy’s affect on the Wiscasset school district’s budget.

“The whole community needs to be taken care of,” said Demers.

Restorative practice is an important piece of the puzzle that Demers would like to see continued to be practiced in the Wiscasset school system.

“We can hold our students accountable with the possibility of restoring themselves,” said Demers. “The kids need to know how to help themselves.”

If reelected, Demers said she will continue as Wiscasset’s representative on the Maine School Board Association Board of Directors for another three years.

“I may be able to change the funding so that with the taxes that we already paid in Wiscasset, we can provide more social emotional learning for the kids, which is important,” she said.

Demers said her experience and her ability to work with others will make for a successful term on the school board if she is reelected.

Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Kyle

Kyle moved to Wiscasset in 2018 following her retirement from teaching after 20 years.

She serves on the board of trustees at the  Wiscasset Public Library and on the board of directors at the Garden Club of Wiscasset. Kyle also participates in the Female Charitable Society of Wiscasset, volunteers at the Wiscasset Public Library children’s room, and volunteers at the Help Yourself Shelf Food Pantry at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church.

Following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kyle volunteered at Wiscasset Elementary School, playing an instrumental role in reopening the elementary school’s library and providing help with the school’s science program.

Kyle said she is running for school board because she wants to bring a thoughtful, neutral voice to the table, “one without history or baggage to resolve.”

As a teacher, Kyle strived to bring the entire outside world into her classroom, and her goal for the school committee and Wiscasset schools is no different.

“My goal is to bring everything in,” she said.

Kyle said she brings decades of classroom teaching and community involvement to the table. Her skill in communicating with parents, students, teachers, and administrators is strong.

If elected, Kyle said she would like to work on establishing a sense of transparency in regard to what is happening within the schools and on the school committee. She would also like to improve communication amongst all community members who are interested in the Wiscasset School district. Overall, she said she wants to help voters understand what’s going on in the schools.

The school district’s greatest strength is its staff that dedicate many hours to educating the community’s youth, Kyle said.

Students walking into Wiscasset schools should have their expectations for their education met and exceeded, said Kyle.

“We want you to work hard. We want you to get to a place that you’re going to be proud of. We need to show them that there is a way that school is safe, that school can help you be more than who you are when you come into school,” said Kyle.

Her goal is to help students so they can leave the education system better educated, more understanding, and more tolerant of the world.

“Kids bring their baggage from home, but it’s important for them to feel who they are. They need to know themselves,” said Kyle.

Gardner Leighton

Leighton did not respond to multiple requests for an interview by press time. He was contacted by phone on Monday, June 3 and Tuesday, June 4 and by email on Thursday, May 30, Monday, June 3, and Tuesday, June 4. He was contacted through the phone number and email address provided to the town when he submitted his nomination papers.

Douglas Merrill

Merrill is the owner and operator of Doug Merrill & Son Building Inc. He was a junior varsity baseball coach at the Wiscasset schools from 2005 to 2011.

Merrill said he is running for school committee because he wants to give back to the community. Additionally, he said having a voice on the committee that is not connected to the schools could be beneficial.

Members of the school committee have a responsibility to the taxpayers and the children, said Merrill, and he thinks that the public should be better informed on what is going on in Wiscasset schools.

If elected, Merrill would like to address morale at the schools and in the community, as it is at an all-time low, he said.

Since Wiscasset’s departure from RSU 12 in 2013, Merrill said the community has been rebuilding, and it still has room to grow.

Merrill believes the Wiscasset schools have dedicated staff members in place and good infrastructure, but having everybody on the same page that is involved with the schools would help operations flow more smoothly.

“I’m just trying to get everybody to row the boat in the same direction,” he said.

Tracey Whitney

Whitney has lived in Wiscasset for three years. Upon her arrival to the area, Whitney said she started dabbling in town happenings that had to do with the community’s children, such as running story time at the public library, taking part in outreach for the library’s summer reading program, and participating in Wiscasset Elementary School’s Partners in Education group.

“PIE is awesome. What a wonderful, committed group of parents. Having committed parents in the school system is a godsend,” she said.

Prior to her arrival in Wiscasset, she was a preschool teacher at a Catholic school in Vermont, and she served a three-year term as a member of the school’s board.

Currently, Whitney is the president of the Wiscasset Friends of the Public Library, a founding member of Wiscasset Wormfest, and the rear commodore of the Wiscasset Yacht Club.

Whitney said she is running because she feels that her previous experience would be a beneficial addition to the school committee.

Additionally, she feels that parents have lost trust in the school committee, and she would like to reclaim that trust.

“The school board needs to rebuild trust within the community by setting really clear procedures and protocol and just being really transparent with families,” she said. “I think if we start down that path, a lot of the other things can start falling into place, because trust is across the board.”

If elected, Whitney would like to tackle the school district’s test score standing, as well as retention of students and staff.

Whitney said she would like to empower teachers to work toward the goal of fixing problems in the current curriculum, and that specific issues need to be researched so a clear solution can be found and implemented.

She wants to capitalize on committed teachers who want to “turn things around,” and she is afraid of the district losing them to other school systems.

Whitney said her vision is that the school district’s test scores rise, teachers come together and feel empowered to do their jobs, and families are encouraged to get involved.

Issues should be solved methodically and the district should start working toward practical solutions so the environment in Wiscasset schools can be healthy and thriving, said Whitney.

“This is something I’m very passionate about, I want to see the schools here succeed, I want to give these kids all the opportunities we can possibly give them,” she said.