YARMOUTH — Former member Margaret Groban will be the only candidate on the ballot in a Sept. 10 School Committee special election to fill the vacancy left by the death of Philip Jones.
Camilla Shannon, the wife of Town Council Vice Chairman Tim Shannon, also took out nomination papers, but did not return them prior to Tuesday’s deadline, according to Town Clerk Jennifer Doten.
Voting will take place from 6 a.m.-8 p.m. in the Community Room at Town Hall.
Former Yarmouth School Committee member Margaret Groban is the only candidate for a Sept. 10 special election. Courtesy / University of Maine School of Law
Absentee ballots will be available starting Thursday, Aug. 29, Doten said. Residents may vote in person at Town Hall or call her office at 846-9036 to receive a ballot by mail. The last day to vote absentee will be Friday, Sept. 5.
Office hours for any resident wishing to vote absentee or register to vote will be held Monday and Tuesday from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. and Friday 9 a.m.-1 p.m. For more information email jdoten@yarmouth.me.us.
Groban could not be reached for comment prior to The Forecaster’s deadline, but during her previous tenure on the School Committee she voted to push back school start times by 20 minutes and was instrumental in the search for a new superintendent after Judy Paolucci resigned in 2012.
She is an an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Maine, and for several decades has been the National Domestic Violence coordinator for the Department of Justice, where she’s earned national
When she initially ran for a seat on the School Committee in 2011, Groban told The Forecaster her three grown daughters all attended Yarmouth schools and she was an active volunteer in their classrooms.
At the time, Groban said she would be “unbiased and objective,” and while she wanted the School Department to be fiscally responsible, “having an excellent school system and an excellent community is what makes Yarmouth (such) a wonderful town.”
This academic year the School Department is embarking on a $52 million project to renovate and build additions at each of the town’s four schools. The largest and most expensive of the construction projects is at Yarmouth Elementary School.
It’s estimated to cost $27.3 million and will nearly double the size of the current building, mainly because of a plan to move the fifth grade from Frank H. Harrison Middle School.
This summer the Planning Board gave final site plan approval to all four projects. The School Department is readying bid documents now and hopes to break ground at William H. Rowe School by October, according to previous comments by Superintendent of Schools Andrew Dolloff.
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