This Tuesday, June 12, Windham residents will be able to vote for town council and school board candidates at the auxiliary gym in the Windham High School. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Absentee ballots can be filed at the Town Clerk’s office until 4:30 p.m. on Friday, June 8.

“We can’t stress enough how important it is for people to come out and vote,” said John MacKinnon, chairman of the town council.

School Board

There are two seats open on the Windham School Board. Three candidates are vying for the two seats, previously filled by Jeffrey Vermette and Mary Wassick. Each seat represents the entire town of Windham. The three people running are Marjorie Govoni, Jeffrey Vermette and Mary Wassick.

Marjorie Govoni – Independent

Marjorie Govoni, 65, lives at 83 Johnson Road. She’s lived here year-round for the last six years, and has had a summer home here since 1986. She grew up in Boston and was the manager of an electronics firm before retirement.

She now works as a supervising noontime aid at the Windham Primary School, is a great-grandmother, a member of the zoning board of appeals, Windham Priority Task Force and serves as the chairwoman of the human services advisory committee that runs the food pantry.

Govoni said she is in favor of the school consolidation plan and thinks Maine schools spend too much on administrative costs.

“We need a nice, healthy balance, and I don’t think we’re at it yet,” she said.

She also wants all Windham students to be able to pass a college entry exam.

Govoni said she has a lot of experience with budgets and said she is the only school board candidate who is retired. She said she would use this to her advantage and make arrangements to spend time inside the various Windham schools about once a week.

“Unless you’re there, you really don’t know what’s going on,” she said.

Incumbent Jeff Vermette – Republican

Jeff Vermette, 51, has lived in Windham for the last 22 years and lived in Sanford before that. He is an account executive for Cross Insurance and holds a bachelor’s of science in finance and investments.

He lives at 155 Windham Center Road and has served on the school board for the last nine years. He is running for his fourth term.

He said he believes literacy is the most important aspect of education.

“If children cannot read, they can not learn…. that is the key to education,” he said.

He said his approach to being on the school board is to slow growth and consolidate services. He said Windham’s athletics and extracurricular activities are worthwhile, but feels academics have to come first.

He would like the school to look into teaching Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language because it is the most widely spoken language in the world. He said he would support deleting the French language program. He said it is less prevalent in the world than the other languages.

“It’s been my privilege and pleasure to serve the town of Windham for the last nine years, and I hope they agree to give me another three,” he said.

Incumbent Mary Wassick – Republican

Wassick, 41, from Maplewood Avenue, has lived in Windham for the last 18 years. If elected it would be her third term. She runs an after-school daycare program, is the president of Windham Center Stage Theater, the youth group leader for Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church and the activities director for the Point Sebago Resort in Casco.

She said she was originally asked to run for the school board and enjoys the work.

“If you’ve got something to say, you should be ready to back it up and do something about it,” she said.

She currently has three children in the Windham school system and wants the schools to focus on literacy.

Wassick said she supports the school consolidation plan, but is worried about losing local control. She said the school board is a liaison between the community and the education system and wants local people to continue to have an impact on the way the schools are run.

She said she has the experience and drive needed to continue to serve on the school board.

“I’m passionate about children and their education,” she said.

Town Council

Councilor At Large

This seat, filled by Councilor Michael Shaughnessy for three years, is open. It represents voters in all of Windham. There are two people running: Blaine Davis and Michael Shaughnessy.

Blaine Davis – Republican

Davis, 28, grew up in Windham. He lives at 18 Swett Road and is the director of marketing at the Windham Independent newspaper and works for Maine Cleaning Services.

He said he would bring a commonsense approach to government, making town documents easier to read, streamlining some approval processes and creating business incentives to encourage town departments to save money.

Davis said he would like to extend the voting period to two days and make absentee ballots more readily available.

He said he opposes increasing town employee salaries each year in reaction to increases in the cost of living.

“I don’t think that should be a freebie,” he said, adding that the private sector doesn’t get that benefit. He said raises should be awarded for performance.

Davis said he is always ready to listen to Windham residents when they want something to change. He said he freely gives out his cell phone number and online contact info.

He said he would like to bring back bulky waste collecting and the leaf and brush pile and said illegal dumping has been rampant on his road since they closed.

“If we’re losing services, why is the budget still going up?” he said.

Michael Shaughnessy – Democrat

Shaughnessy, 49, grew up in Missouri and moved to Windham two decades ago. He has been an art professor at the University of Southern Maine since 1987 and has chaired the art department for the last 10 years. He holds two art degrees, a bachelor’s from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and a master’s from Ohio University. If reelected it would be his second three-year term.

He also serves on the board of directors for the Space Gallery in Portland and is a member of the Maine Arts Commission.

He said Windham is at a critical point in its evolution and needs to stay on the cutting edge of technology. He said he is pleased with the way the town has embraced the Internet in distributing town documents and meeting information and that Windham should be ready for what the future can bring, such as residents being able to participate in a public hearing from home.

“It’s not healthy to wait for change to occur and address it,” he said. He cited the skate park as a good example of Windham being rewarded for trying new things.

Shaughnessy said he supports environmental causes and believe Windham residents and potential tourists want a clean area.

“We are far more dependent on the environment than anything else,” he said.

He said he believes in open communication with town residents.

“One of the biggest problems is people don’t know all the public services available to them,” he said. He said the town could do a better job of informing people about services.

North District

This seat, filled by Councilor Lloyd Bennett for six years, is open. It represents voters in North Windham. There is only one person running: Kaile Warren.

Kaile Warren – Republican (unopposed)

Warren, 47, has lived in Cumberland County for his entire life and Windham since 2000. He was homeless for two years in Portland until he started his handyman business Rent-A-Husband in the mid 1990s.

Now the CEO of his own national franchise with 1,400 locations, an author and columnist and the national home improvement correspondent for the CBS Early Show, Warren said he feels he still has the time to concentrate on the town of Windham.

He said he believes in using a cost-benefit analysis for government spending and making sure there is a return on investments.

He served two terms on the Cumberland planning board in the 1980s and rewrote the Windham High School’s business simulation class from a theoretical lecture to hands-on projects.

Warren said he strongly supports keeping job opportunities fair for women and said the town needs to give residents opportunities for good jobs. He says this is very different from giving people money directly.

“I do not believe in anyone having a sense of entitlement,” he said.

He said he would do everything he could to make sure Windham property taxes are spent wisely.

“If we’re not doing something effectively, we need to change it,” he said.

South District

This seat, filled by Councilor David Tobin for three years, is open. It represents voters in South Windham. There are two people running: Donna Chapman and Michael Wozich.

Donna Chapman – Republican

Chapman, 48, of 46 Bachelor Road, has lived in Windham for the last 11 years. She is an associate broker for ERA Today real estate and on the board of directors of the Sebago Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce. She is the leader of the Cumberland County Equestrians 4-H Club and owns five horses.

She is also the vice president of the Cumberland County 4-H Leaders Association and does volunteer work that connects 4-H to armed service members.

She said there is a tension between the chamber of commerce and the town.

“I want to see that void patched,” she said. “I don’t think we can afford to have businesses go somewhere else when you could have had them here.”

Chapman said she feels Maine taxes are already too high and would like to cut back on spending where possible.

She said she’d like Windham to get more involved in the historic Parson Smith house on River Road and would like to see the Keddy Mill torn down.

She said the old textile mill is “an eyesore” and doesn’t think Windham should get involved with the company that owns it. She said it was a conflict of interest for town attorney Ken Cole to make recommendations for the sewer project for the condos that are planned to be built on the mill site because his law firm represents the private company that owns the property. She said she would have asked for outside counsel if she had been on the town council at the time.

She also supports reinstating the bulky waste collection and leaf and brush pile. She said Anderson Road has had a large amount of illegal dumping lately and said it’s because the town isn’t providing a place for people to throw out large waste.

Michael Wozich – Democrat

Wozich, 55, of 85 River Road, has lived in Windham since 1988. He grew up in California and ran a landscaping business there. He is the pastor of the Windham Friends Church and has a bachelor’s degree in theology from St. Francis Seminary and two business degrees.

As a Quaker, he said he does not support war but is encouraged to participate in public service. He sees joining the town council as a way to help the community that has given him so much support during some difficult periods in his life.

Wozich said he wants to promote responsible development in Windham and give the town the ability to reject businesses that would industrialize the land and hurt the town’s character.

He said while he wants Windham to maintain its rural feel, farming and agriculture are not the future for the town. He said big box stores and rock quarries do not improve the feel of Windham. Instead he wants to draw a large technology firm that would bring good jobs and work with the town to maintain its country feel.

He said he supports the Keddy Mill project and said Windham has a housing shortage.

He also supports the Parson Smith house and the Windham Land Trust.

He said the elderly citizens of Windham have a tough time expressing their views and said he would speak up for them.

Marjorie GovoniJeff VermetteMary WassickBlaine DavisMichael ShaughnessyKaile WarrenDonna ChapmanMichael Wozich