Three Vie for Spot on Jefferson School Committee

Three candidates are looking to fill a seat on the Jefferson School Committee left vacant when Shawn St. Cyr resigned earlier this year.

St. Cyr said he was resigning over a conflict of interest due to his wife taking a long-term substitute teacher position at Jefferson Village School, according to an

email he sent to school officials in January.

Brady Grotton, Nicole Potter, and Al Vorhis all have their eyes on serving the two remaining years of St. Cyr’s three-year term.

Incumbent school committee member Forrest Bryant is running for re-election to a three-year term, but is unopposed. See story this edition about candidates for other

positions in Jefferson this year.

Voters will decide elections, the municipal budget, and other items at Jefferson’s annual town meeting on Tuesday, March 31.

Polls will be open at the Jefferson Fire Station from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Brady Grotton, a senior at Erskine Academy, said he is running for the school committee as someone with recent experience as a Jefferson student and with an eye on what is best

for current students’ education.

“I’m really less concerned about the bottom line, and I would say 90 to 95 percent of my focus is going to be on the students and making sure they get the education

they deserve,” Grotton said.

Grotton pointed specifically at “specials” (physical education, art, and music classes) as one area he would like to increase and improve on, saying they have more

of an impact on students’ education than people sometimes give them credit for.

Teaching positions for specials at Jefferson Village School were cut to half-time in the 2013-2014 school year, and though funding was included in the current budget

to restore them to 0.8 of full-time, the school committee instead voted to use the funds to hire two educational technicians.

Grotton also hopes to ensure education at JVS builds a solid foundation for the town’s students to build on when they move on to high school and beyond.

“I think that we need to put an emphasis on the fact that this school [JVS] is getting Jefferson residents’ kids ready for the future,” Grotton said.

Grotton, planning to major in biochemistry, is waiting to hear back from Harvard University but will otherwise attend Husson University in the fall. With either

school, he intends to travel home to Jefferson in order to participate in school committee meetings.

Grotton currently works in the deli at County Corners in Whitefield. Grotton is a nationally certified emergency medical technician and served for a year as a first

responder for Jefferson Fire and Rescue.

Nicole Potter wants to be a school committee member to enhance her own understanding of Jefferson’s education system and improve community involvement and connection to help

share that knowledge.

Potter has two daughters that attend Jefferson Village School and a son at Lincoln Academy, and believes having a parent’s interest in education can be an advantage

as a school committee member.

“I think people in the community knowing you have children in the school makes you more approachable,” Potter said.

Potter sees serving on the school committee as an opportunity for her to grow personally, but also an opportunity to provide the community with a chance to grow.

“I think there’s such a gap between the community and the school board and maybe … people don’t understand what the school board does,” Potter said. She hopes to be

a person community members feel comfortable approaching with ideas and questions.

Potter is a supervisor for Mobius Inc., where she has worked for nine years over two stints. In between, she worked for five years at Medomak Valley High School as

an educational technician for the school’s day treatment program.

Potter has two daughters at Jefferson Village School and a son at Lincoln Academy. She is a coach for the JVS Odyssey of the Mind team, and has served as assistant

coach for the school’s softball team and head coach for cheering with the Jefferson Sports Association.

Al Vorhis is a retired electrical engineer and educator, and aims to put his methodical approach to work on education in Jefferson.

“Coming from an engineering environment, I’m very methodical,” Vorhis said. “You need to set goals, have objectives, [and] ways of measuring that: how close you may

be to those end objectives.”

Vorhis said his primary focus is on the students.

“My biggest interest is the kids, seeing they have a shot. Not just the exceptional kids, not just the lower echelon, but all of them have a good chance to go,”

Vorhis said.

Vorhis sees “major problems” at Jefferson Village School, including student performance in statewide testing, as well as the amount of money spent per student when

compared to other schools.

“I just don’t think that money is the answer to all things,” said Vorhis, who describes himself as fiscally responsible.

“I think you need to find a problem, and I think there’s other ways of solving a lot of the problems,” he said.

Vorhis, who has previously served on the school committee, said Jefferson’s educational situation has been the same for years.

“Don’t know that I can change it all, don’t know that I need to change it all, but I think there’s some modifications that need to be done,” he said, including

improving transparency with the public.

Vorhis worked for 22 years as an electrical engineer for Digital Equipment, and recently retired after working for 10 years as an instructor for Lincoln Academy.

Vorhis has coached basketball and baseball in Jefferson, served on two principal search committees, and chaired a school building committee.