Brief education Portland School Committee race primer BY SARA DONNELLY

This year’s race for the Portland School Committee features a number of candidates with varying backgrounds, some of whom have children in the city’s schools, many who do not. The Phoenix conducted brief, get-to-know-you interviews with each candidate vying for a three-year term on the committee. Below is a bit about each candidate and information about any official endorsements. Candidates have been ordered alphabetically.

AT-LARGE

Jaimey Caron is the only candidate for the at-large seat who has children in the Portland school system. Caron, a structural engineer with Neill and Gunter, Inc., in Scarborough, has two young children who attend the city’s public schools. Caron believes his experience as a dad and a former member of Portland’s planning board (from 1995 through 2004) will allow him to bring unique strengths to the school committee.

"I’ve got a good understanding of the municipal side and where the city is heading," he says.

Caron plans to help the committee incorporate more strategic and long-range planning. He is supported by city councilors Jim Cohen, Will Gorham, and Donna Carr and Portland’s state representatives Boyd Marley and Glenn Cummings.

Frances Frost, a public affairs consultant, served on the Portland School Committee from 1994 to 1997. This year, she received an endorsement from the Portland Education Association, the local teacher’s union. During city budget talks, Frost believes there’s a consistent divide between the parents of Portland’s school-aged children and the rest of the taxpaying populace. She hopes to conduct a more open school budget process to help alleviate any tension around the amount of money the schools receive from the city.

"I would see that the complexity of our school system is explained, laid bare," she says.

Frost believes the schools should be a source of pride for the city, and the school committee should work to show that a strong school system means a strong local economy and community.

Susan Hopkins has been endorsed by the Portland Green Party and has been active in the Green school committee members’ push to reign in military recruitment in the city’s high schools. Hopkins decided to run for school committee after being inspired by student activism at an annual Civil Rights Team conference in Augusta in April.

She has worked as a child advocacy attorney since 1996 and currently runs an independent practice in Saco. Hopkins, who does not have any children, plans to focus on providing nutritious food and a healthy learning environment to kids, within the context of the allotted budget.

"I want to make sure people’s voices in the community are being heard," says Hopkins. "I really want to serve the best interests of Portland."

DISTRICT 4

Lori Gramlich is a former lobbyist for the Dirigo Alliance, a progressive advocacy coalition. Today, Gramlich works as an independent consultant in Portland and is raising her 12-year-old daughter, who currently goes to Waynflete, a private school in the West End. Gramlich’s daughter was a student at Longfellow Elementary and will most likely attend a Portland public high school, she says. Gramlich has been endorsed by the teacher’s union, the Portland Education Association.

Gramlich hopes to focus on unifying the city’s school curricula so that the jump from elementary to middle to high schools is smooth.

"We can do a better job of having consistency across the schools’ curriculum," the candidate says. "I plan to do consensus building within the committee and within the community. I think we have some missed or lost opportunities as far as engaging the community."

Gramlich is currently a member of the "Friends of Lincoln Middle School" volunteer group, which is working on enhancing the school’s curriculum.

Teri McRae is running for reelection to the school committee. McRae works as a part-time register of probate and as a controller for a New York City company. Her 13-year-old son attends Lyman Moore Middle School in Portland.

McRae describes herself as a fiscal conservative — she says she wants to make sure the committee is not spending money it doesn’t need. McRae has served three years on the school committee and hopes to continue her work as the Finance Chair.

"I’d like to see the committee set more goals and be more accountable for measuring schools in the district," she says. "We don’t have any means to evaluate our schools over time."

DISTRICT 5

Chris Breen plans to focus on the schools’ dropout rates, which he believes are unusually high. Breen is the Vice President of Print Graphics of Maine, a commercial printing press in Portland, and is a divorced father of two children. His children live with their mother and attend Scarborough public schools.

Breen plans to alleviate the number of dropouts in the city by tracking the problem.

"To me, it’s more about figuring out the problem first," he says. "I think nobody’s really missing these people who are gone. Every time somebody leaves, let’s see if there’s a pattern and review ways to fix it."

Breen is a member of the League of Pissed Off Voters but was not endorsed by the group.

John Coyne is a juvenile parole officer who worked at Longcreek Youth Development Center as a juvenile program worker from 1990-2003. Coyne has two children, ages 7 and 9, who attend Portland schools. He has been endorsed by the Portland Education Association teachers’ union.

"My plan that I’m going on is to make the Portland schools the schools to be in," Coyne says. "Instead of moving to the suburbs to save on taxes, people will be staying here, taking a hit, because their kids will become better people if they’re raised in Portland schools."

Coyne has been a member of the Riverton School PTO from 2002-2004 and a basketball and Little League coach in the area since 2002. He is also a member of the Portland group Community Mobilizing for Changes on Alcohol, which was recently formed to fight alcohol abuse among children ages to 14 to 17.

Sara Donnelly can be reached at sdonnelly@phx.com