The Topsham Select Board appointed a new member to the Maine School Administrative District 75 school board at a Thursday meeting. Kimberly Pacelli, a partner at risk management and consulting firm TNG, will fill the seat vacated Nancy Chandler until November, when voters will elect a member.

Chandler announced her resignation from the school board, which serves Topsham, Harpswell, Bowdoin and Bowdoinham, in a letter two weeks ago. Her departure preempted Superintendent Steve Connolly’s resignation last week. He was the districts fifth superintendent in four years, and frequent turnover in leadership has harried the district for years.

“My goal is straight-forward, which is to provide steady and thoughtful stewardship for the district for the limited time period of the appointment,” Parcelli said. “I work closely with K-12 districts in my work, so I know I will be a quick study.”

Also vying for the temporary seat were Jennifer Banis, a culinary adjunct professor, and Annalyse Sarvinas, a preschool teacher.

At Thursday’s Select Board meeting, three Topsham residents showed their support for Banis and Pacelli claiming both women would focus on the students, staff, and parents to create a harmonious environment.

“We want to attract a superintendent that will stay. We want a bridge builder that will support public schools,” said Robin Brooks.

Nate Cloutier spoke of Sarvinas’ teaching experience and said it was a shame the vote has become so bogged down by politics.

Annalyse Sarvinas has been active in the conservative nonprofit Parents’ Rights in Education — an organization encouraging parents to design the curriculum and policies enforced in their children’s schools.

When it came time to vote, Select Board Chair David Douglass said he received 90 emails from residents and non-residents on who to appoint. He said some of the emails stated, “we may not vote for you again as we did in the past if you don’t make the right choice.”

“It’s been very stressful as a board member,” he said.

Board member Ruth Lyons said she did a lot of “investigating” to prepare herself for the vote. She said community members claimed the school board was very “divisive” and members had private political agendas.

“The right candidate has to be strong, has to listen, and has to do what’s right for the children, school, and staff,” said Lyons. “Politics should not have a place in your role.”

“We’re looking for someone who is centrist,” said board member Matthew Nixon.

Chandler said she left the board because of the heavy workload.

“I left the board because of late night meetings and my sense of responsibility for reading vast amounts of policies, curriculum, and budget materials and following fast-paced meetings was exhausting my health,” Chandler wrote in a letter to the editor.

Superintendent Connolly said he was resigning in part because of divisions in the district.

“While the long hours each week, the volume of evening meetings and events, and hard decisions were known parts of the role, I find I have not been effective in managing the implicit divisions that exist based on political, personal, and ideological beliefs which, in my view are stagnating the opportunity for systemic educational progress,” Connolly wrote.

He declined to provide more details about those divisions or expand beyond what he stated in his resignation letter.

These were just the latest in a long series of unexpected departures among district leadership.

In 2019, two members of the board from Harpswell resigned at the same time, saying they “no longer have the trust of the board” but never explaining what they meant by that.

In early 2022, board member Allison Hawkes resigned, citing the “toxic” atmosphere on the board.