Two people are seeking one three-year term on the Edgecomb School Committee in this year’s municipal election.
Heather Sinclair, the current chair of the board, and Maureen Heffernan, former executive director of the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, are both vying for the seat.
Also on the ballot in Edgecomb’s municipal election this year is one three-year select board term. Former select board and planning board member Stuart Smith is running against Seawicks Candles Co. owner Cara Gaffney, who announced her write-in candidacy earlier this month. (See related article in this edition.)
All other positions are uncontested.
Claudia Coffin is running for one-year terms as town clerk and treasurer. Coffin has been the town clerk for 37 years and treasurer for 35 years.
Jessica Mague is seeking reelection for the one-year tax collector term.
Mague became deputy tax collector in 2022 and then tax collector in September 2025.
Scott Griffin is running for the one-year term as the road commissioner. Griffin has been the road commissioner since 2005.
No one returned papers for a three-year term on the Edgecomb Planning Board.
Officers will be voted on by secret ballot from 1-7 p.m. on Saturday, May 16 at the Edgecomb town hall. For more information, call 882-7018 or go to edgecomb.org.
Maureen Heffernan
Maureen Heffernan (Courtesy photo)
Heffernan is the former executive director of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay, having held the position from 2004-2011. She went on to become the director of the Myriad Botanical Garden in Oklahoma City, Okla. and retired in 2025.
Prior to her time in Maine and Oklahoma, Heffernan was the director of public programs at the Cleveland Botanical Garden and an education coordinator at the American Horticultural Society.
Heffernan said she is running for the school committee because she thought it would be a good way to get back in to the community after moving back to the area.
“Education is really near and dear to me, and a lot of my career has been doing education programs for the public through my work,” Heffernan said.
If elected, Heffernan said she would like improve fundraising efforts and get the Edgecomb Eddy School more involved with grant applications. Before she would introduce any new initiatives, she would like to listen and learn from community members first.
Heffernan believes her experiences in management, budgeting, and community work would make her the perfect fit for the role, she said. Even though she has not served on a school committee before, she said she believes her time running nonprofits, public programming, and running educational programs will help if elected.
“I think it’s a good thing if you bring in somebody who hasn’t worked in a school in a way, because you bring, they call it beginner’s mind, and so you you’re just learning fresh,” Heffernan said.
One thing on Heffernan’s list if elected is reviving the school’s library, which was transitioned in to more learning areas during the COVID- 19 pandemic to create more space. She said she also wants to help in other areas, such as improving access to tutors and facilitating ways for teachers to achieve their academic goals.
She also gave kudos to the school’s garden, mentioning she would like to help facilitate its growth.
Heffernan said the best way to make sure everyone is represented by the school committee is by having a listening ear and learning from every comment.
“The best thing you can do is ask people to tell you what you don’t want to hear,” Heffernan said.
In her free time, Heffernan said she loves to garden, hike, and bike. This July, she plans on climbing Mount Katahdin, which she has been training to do for over a year.
As a recent retiree, she said she has been trying to stay involved by working with different organizations, such as joining the Maine Public Community Advisory Board.
Heather Sinclair
Heather Sinclair (Courtesy photo)
Sinclair, the current chair of the school committee, is seeking for her fourth three-year term.
Sinclair has been an educator for most of her life, she said. After teaching in Maryland for a few years, she moved to Edgecomb when her son started kindergarten at Edgecomb Eddy School.
“I bought the house because of the school,” she said.
Over the years, Sinclair has taught at schools including Wiscasset Middle High School and has also served as a member of the Maine Education Association. Since she became a teacher in the mid-2000s, she said she has been a member of the teacher’s association at every school where she has been employed.
Sinclair said she is running again so she can continue the work that has been started while she is on the committee. This includes more transparency efforts, like the first-ever “state of the school” address given last year. As the committee gathers feedback and works on making progress, she said she wants to continue being a part of that.
With three terms worth of knowledge, Sinclair said her time on the committee and as an educator has shaped her understanding of how decisions are made and helps her approach every task tackled by the committee.
“I don’t think anybody should hold the same seat forever, but I also think you have to know a lot to get the job done,” Sinclair said.
If reelected, Sinclair said she would like to initiate civil conversations between disagreeing parties. Recently, she said, there has been some pushback from residents who are concerned about the increasing cost of education.
“For some reason, there continue to be this impression that school is too expensive, and it’s causing us to be a lot more antagonistic in an environment that really should be calling for mutual discussion,” Sinclair said.
Sinclair also hopes to continue the “state of the school” address and strengthening communication across AOS 98.
Reelection would also mean she can continue to work with AOS 98 on topics such as regionalization, Sinclair said, as there are many conversations about the future of the school district made up of the Boothbay region and she wants to be a part of them.
On the state level, she said she wants to continue pushing for fair state subsidy allocations so Edgecomb can receive more support. Currently, state subsidy is determined by property valuations, which Sinclair said is not a proper indicator if towns can cover the cost of education. Over the past year, she had been advocating through testimony and outreach to change this to get the town some more support.
In her free time, Sinclair enjoys being out on the water and spending time with her son. She is currently working on receiving a Ph.D. in public policy and education leadership. Once her son gets his driver’s license, she said she hopes to join a singing group.
