Vote or Quit Bitchin’ 2007
Local election coverage
Voters’ Guide: Portland School Committee At Large
“Zen” Ben’s revenge
By Chris Busby
Late last November, a dejected Ben Meiklejohn stood in the dark back parking lot of Portland Arts and Technology High School smoking the butt I’d bummed him. Minutes earlier, he’d been denied the largely ceremonial post of school board chair by a party-line vote, for the second consecutive year.
An at-large representative to the officially nonpartisan Portland School Committee, Meiklejohn is its most senior member, having been elected by voters citywide in 2001. But he’s also its most senior Green. With their 5-4 majority, Democrats chose Ellen Alcorn – then beginning her second year of public service – to chair the board in 2005. This time it was sophomore District 5 rep John Coyne’s turn to lead.
Meiklejohn would have to settle for the consolation prize: chairmanship of the Finance Committee. His colleague, Jason Toothaker, called it “utter partisan malarkey.”
Meiklejohn had been saying this term might be his last if he didn’t get the board chairmanship on the second try. It’d been a tough month, what with having just lost a race for a state House seat to Democrat Anne Rand by 384 votes.
But then he thought of next year, next election – this election. How if he won a third three-year term representing the entire city, the Dems would practically have no choice but to grant him this one small political courtesy. Right?
Meiklejohn’s mood brightened a bit at the thought of this, then he went back inside to join his colleagues for their regular business meeting. In a brittle spirit of bipartisanship, they approved a new three-year contract for Superintendent Mary Jo O’Connor worth about a third of a million dollars, and a teachers’ union contract that included a nearly 13-percent pay increase over three years.
And sure enough, “Zen” Ben is back. This shouldn’t be surprising. Meiklejohn, 36, is nothing if not persistent. The bachelor house painter and oboist ran for the school board three times, twice as a write-in candidate, before he finally won. If he wins again, there’s a more-than-good chance he’ll be denied the board chairmanship a third time by a partisan caucus vote. But Lucy never stopped Charlie Brown from trying to kick the ball, now did she?
The word on the street is that Meiklejohn is toast. The media-fed hysteria over the school budget has voters looking for more heads to roll. The finance director’s head wasn’t enough. O’Connor’s noggin wasn’t enough. Alcorn, a member of the Finance Committee, had the “decency” not to run again this year, one local pol sniffed.
And then there are the four others vying for the two at-large board seats this fall. They all seem competent and qualified, but that’s the thing: there are four of them, all strong contenders, and if they split enough votes between themselves, Meiklejohn can walk back in with as little as 21 percent of the tally. In 2004, he garnered 34 percent of the vote in a three-way race; Alcorn got 36.
Jaimey Caron is back in the fray this year. The married father of two Lyseth Elementary School students narrowly lost an at-large bid to Susan Hopkins two years ago. This is the Democrat’s second try.
Caron, 42, oversees the project management group at Neill and Gunter, an engineering firm in Scarborough. He served nine years on the Portland Planning Board, and had the satisfaction of being chairman for four of them. City Councilors Jim Cloutier and Jill Duson support Caron, whose civic involvement includes volunteer work as a board member of Portland Trails and the North Deering Neighborhood Association.
Fellow candidate Orlando Delogu has also put in time on the local planning board – five years, in his case, plus three years in the mid-1990s on the Portland City Council, including time as chairman of the Council’s Finance Committee. The 70-year-old West Ender tried to get back on the Council in 2003, but lost his bid to unseat then-incumbent Karen Geraghty.
An emeritus professor at the University of Maine School of Law, Delogu has four decades of university-level teaching experience. The year after he lost to Geraghty, he taught her and her council colleagues a lesson about the Maine Constitution, helping to lead a successful court challenge of the city’s residential property tax rebate program on grounds it was fundamentally unfair to commercial property owners and other taxpayers.
Delogu is married and has four grown children who attended Portland public schools – three of them, he said, are now teachers. A longtime Democrat, Delogu unenrolled from the party prior to making this latest run for office.
First-time candidates Kate Snyder and Leslie Minton round out the field.
Snyder, 37, is a married mother of three Portland public school children. She lives within a couple blocks of Nathan Clifford School, and has served on its PTO. The decision to either close or renovate the elementary school is a major issue in this campaign.
Snyder is a researcher working on a global health initiative by Boston University. She is completing a graduate degree in public policy and management at the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School. The Democrat has a host of high-profile political supporters, including Speaker of the House Glenn Cummings, State Senator Ethan Strimling, former state senator Mike Brennan, City Councilor Ed Suslovic, and former councilor and mayor Nathan Smith.
Minton, 43, is a mathematics specialist with the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, a nonprofit educational development organization based in Augusta. She is married and has two children attending college. The North Deering resident is a registered Green Independent, though she said she did not intend to enroll as a Green, and considers herself an unaffiliated independent.
The Bollard asked this year’s candidates about Clifford’s fate, of course, and queried them on a variety of other fiscal and policy issues. The question about “economic balance” in city schools refers to the idea of districting students to create a fairly even mix of kids from rich and poor families in every school. The pros and cons of achieving this have been discussed during talks about redistricting in the wake of a possible elementary school closure.
Lastly, we asked all the candidates if they would support Meiklejohn for the board chairmanship should he win this year. Not to spoil the ending, but Meiklejohn confirmed that he would seek the post again and support himself to be chair.
Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity, as necessary.
Should Clifford school be closed and a new elementary school be built with the state funding?
Jaimey Caron: Yes.
Orlando Delogu: Yes.
Ben Meiklejohn: “Absent any changes in the state’s criteria for school construction, [yes].”
Leslie Minton: Not sure, but dubious of process thus far. Needs more information to decide.
Kate Snyder: “At this point, I think it’s premature to say until we understand what the impact is on the district.” Wants a “strategic… comprehensive plan” for the future of school facilities.
Are laptops effective learning tools?
Caron: “It depends on which age you target [them] to… There is a place for [laptops].” Suggested they should “probably” be provided to high school students rather than just middle-schoolers.
Delogu: “I think it’s probably a little overrated,” but yes.
Meiklejohn: “I think they can be effective learning tools… It depends how they’re used.”
Minton: “I think a laptop is like a pencil – they are tools and can be utilized as such. On the other hand, I have had experience in my career, both as a teacher and as a professional developer, in seeing them not maximized in what they can do. It [improves] with teacher training.”
Snyder: Yes.
What, if anything, should be done to create more economic balance in city schools?
Caron: Sees benefits to such balance, but potentially negative trade-offs, as well, like increased bussing. “It’s one of those things you need to consider… [but] we can’t focus on one issue” when making districting decisions.
Delogu: Is “less worried” about the mix of students from different economic backgrounds and more concerned that some city schools have educational enrichment programs not offered in others.
Meiklejohn: The balance should exist for programs like Many Rivers and “schools of choice” like the new East End Community School. Transportation costs could be an issue. “I think the changing demographics of the city are fixing that. In time, it’s starting to even out on its own.”
Minton: Focus more on equity of resources among schools.
Snyder: Offered no specifics to achieve that, but expressed strong support for the concept of attaining such balance.
Should Mary Jo O’Connor have resigned?
Caron: Yes.
Delogu: Yes.
Meiklejohn: Yes.
Minton: Yes.
Snyder: Yes.
Are teachers underpaid, overpaid, or getting appropriate compensation?
Caron: “I think they’re probably reasonably compensated.”
Delogu: Has not seen current salary figures, but is concerned that the aggregation of base and “step” raises in addition to pay increases for professional development achievements may be excessive. Wants more information, including assurance that those drawing a full-time salary are actually working full-time.
Meiklejohn: “I think they are paid well. They’ve got one of the best salary and benefits packages in the state, and it’s well deserved.”
Minton: Appropriate compensation.
Snyder: Appropriate compensation.
Should the school administration be cut, and if so, where?
Caron: Would look to give principals and teachers more decision-making authority and make cuts accordingly.
Delogu: Not sure.
Meiklejohn: Supports merging basic school operations with analogous city departments wherever practical. Thinks multi-lingual and social services provided by the school department should “likely” be handled by the city, instead.
Minton: Not sure.
Snyder: Not sure. Said administrative cuts should only be considered after a new superintendent begins work.
Do you support weighted grades and class rankings?
Caron: Yes, but would seek community input on potential improvements to the ranking system.
Delogu: Yes.
Meiklejohn: Yes, but supports having “as much transparency and information about the students’ grades as possible,” including “multiple reports that also present the information without the weight. Colleges will unravel the weights anyway.”
Minton: No. “As a teacher, what concerned me [was the idea that] if you get an A, you’re done. There’s nothing more you can do… I worry about the messages the current system [sends to students].”
Snyder: “For the time being, yes,” but supports more study of other models and changes to the ranking system, as necessary.
Should changes be made to sex education in Portland schools?
Caron: Not sure.
Delogu: Not necessarily. “We need to be as open as the times seem to demand… The thing we shouldn’t allow to remain in place is imprecise knowledge.”
Meiklejohn: “Yes, I think we need to improve the program… [We’re] seeing a rise in teenage pregnancies. We need to reinforce our support for sex-ed programs.”
Minton: Not sure.
Snyder: No.
If Ben Meiklejohn is reelected, would you support him for school board chair?
Caron: “That’s a tough one for me… I think I would probably not support Ben in being the chair [because] I think Ben really aspires to higher office… We want people focused first and foremost on school issues… What the public is looking for is some steady leadership… Hopefully this question would be a moot question.”
Delogu: “Never.”
Meiklejohn: Would try for the post again. “One thing the School Committee lacks is a professional development program for itself. There’s no understood standard for leadership development… I would suggest we have Sarah Thompson chair the Finance Committee [and] be chair of the board after that. That’s what I would think would make sense, but sense is not always synonymous with the School Committee.”
Minton: Undecided.
Snyder: “No… I don’t feel that people necessarily feel comfortable with him as chair of the [School] Committee when the Finance Committee he chaired this year has seen so many troubles. We’re all about rebuilding public confidence. We need to earn that back. That’s unfortunate for Ben.”
