The Portland Press Herald asked candidates running for Scarborough Town Council and school board questions voters might want the answers to in advance of the election in November: Why are you running for office? What makes you a qualified candidate? What issues do you plan to address while serving in this position? What would you like voters to know about you?

TOWN COUNCIL

There are two Town Council seats up for grabs, and both candidates are running unopposed. The terms will expire in 2028.

Michelle Hayes

Why are you running for this position?

Our family loves Scarborough! We’ve been fortunate to call Scarborough home since 1993. We selected Scarborough for its beautiful beaches, trails, marsh and school system, and I truly loved that there was a working waterfront. My two children attended Scarborough schools and received an excellent education. My parents moved to Scarborough and lived here for the last 10 years of their lives. We are proud to call Scarborough home!

My primary driver in deciding to run for Town Council is my ongoing frustration with the town’s governance and their inability to manage growth. I am a founding member of the grassroots movement Not So Fast, Scarborough. “Our mission is to ensure Scarborough’s growth is thoughtful and reflective of the will of its residents — preserving our Town’s character, protecting our natural resources and promoting responsible development that serves both current and future generations.”

We need a government that balances the needs, wants and concerns of our residents with the demands of developers. Too many Scarborough residents tell me developers are driving the town’s agenda and they want the town to pause, reflect and move forward in a thoughtful manner. Our infrastructure needs to catch up with the past 20 years of accelerated growth. And, we certainly don’t need to incentivize developers to build in Scarborough with TIFs (tax increment financing).

What about you makes you a uniquely qualified candidate?

As a longtime Scarborough resident, I’ve had a front-row seat experiencing the impact of growth and change on our town. I was an active classroom/school volunteer from 1995-2019 and appreciate the challenges of providing a quality education. My 25-year career with Hannaford Supermarkets as a human resources and operations executive leader provided me invaluable experience in strategic planning, financial management, problem solving, business consulting and people engagement. In 2011, I co-founded a small business — Smith Kjeldgaard & Hayes, Human Resource Solutions — located in Scarborough.

I’ve been an active and passionate community leader throughout my career. I am a past chair of the Good Shepherd Food Bank’s board of directors and served for six years as an Olympia Snowe Leadership Advisor mentoring high school girls in Maine. I’m a past board member of Kids First, Cumberland County YMCA, Fiddlehead Center for the Arts and Ketcha Outdoors. Currently, I’m a board member of Thomas College and Maine Community Foundation.

What issues do you plan to address while serving in this position?

Protecting our environment, natural resources and the access to them that make Scarborough unique, by studying our current zoning practices and making changes to reflect the goals of our community. Recently, a development comprising 120 luxury apartments ($2,450-$2,950 a month) was built across from Eight Corners Primary School, an area already challenged with traffic issues. The developer was allowed to “clear cut” the land and build a stone’s throw from the busy intersection. The allowance of this development was the “tipping point” for my candidacy.

Listening to the residents of Scarborough and enhancing community trust in representative government. For years, our town-wide community surveys have resulted in “growth” as the No. 1 concern. And yet, Scarborough’s growth increased by 25.4% over the past 10 years. This fall, the town is administering another town-wide survey. As a new town councilor, I will prioritize the survey results to reflect what the residents tell us. We work for them!

Ensuring our schools and public safety teams have the support and resources they need to provide the services required to meet the needs of our growing community.

Strategically understanding the impact and strain on our infrastructure prior to approving new development. We are often playing “catch up” and have a backlog of transportation, road projects and safety upgrades as a result.

Providing credible short and long-term financial stewardship of taxpayer monies.

What would you like voters to know about you?

I grew up in a military family and arrived in Machias in ninth grade as a result of my father’s last Navy deployment. My father grew up on a working farm in Searsport and wanted to retire in his beloved Maine. I acquired a love of culture and diversity early in life having lived in Europe eight years prior to our move to Maine. People fascinate me and I love hearing different perspectives and viewpoints. My first job was raking blueberries for two summers in Machias! I love to travel but coming home to Maine is always my favorite trip.

I’ve supported dozens of political candidates “behind the scenes” and grew up in a household with robust political conversations around the dinner table. My mother campaigned for her father’s successful city council race in 1950 in Virginia. My father-in-law served on the Auburn school board for a decade, and my husband, Peter, served six years on the Scarborough Town Council.

My favorite quote: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead

Karin Shupe

Why are you running for this position? 

I have always believed in volunteering and giving back to the community I live in.  I have volunteered for the town for over 10 years and have enjoyed meeting the residents of Scarborough and learning what their concerns and priorities are.

What about you makes you a uniquely qualified candidate?

There is a lot to learn when you join Town Council. Having already served on the council for the last three years, I have the knowledge base to continue to effectively serve the residents for another three years. I know what issues are at the forefront of residents’ minds, and I am ready to tackle those in my next term.

What primary issues do you plan to address while serving in this position?

My two top priorities have not changed in the last three years: protecting our marsh and environment and slowing growth. Scarborough is fortunate enough to be home to the state’s largest saltwater marsh. I think we need to be doing a better job to protect the marsh, especially with all the growth we have seen around it. The changes I have seen in Scarborough over the last 20 years have been impactful to the quality of life residents experience. We need to do a better job to slow growth and manage the impact of the growth we have already experienced.

What would you like voters to know about you? 

I think sometimes constituents forget councilors are residents just like them. I have lived in Scarborough for 20 years now. I have two children in the school system and care deeply about the future of this town.

SCHOOL BOARD

This is a special election to fill a vacant seat that will expire in 2027.

Crescencia Maurer

Why are you running for this position?

I am running to get the word out about the school bond measures that voters will be asked to pass this November. Our three primary schools are 60 to 68 years old. They need significant investment just to ensure a safe and adequate learning environment. The town formed School Building Advisory Committees that consulted extensively with the community to come up with a proposed bond that responds to our community’s priorities. The community expressed a clear desire to keep our three primary schools and to address problems that have plagued the middle school for over 25 years. The bonds will address needs not wants. Here are some of the deficiencies the bonds will help fix: build more classrooms, eliminate aging portables, create enough cafeteria space so middle school students aren’t eating in hallways and finishing lunch one hour before dismissal, improvements to school entrances to safeguard against intruders and adequate space for school nurses as well as before- and after-school programs.

What about you makes you a uniquely qualified candidate?

I am not uniquely qualified. But I do care enough to step up and run so I can bring attention to the school crisis facing Scarborough. We have an opportunity to rebuild and renew our three neighborhood schools, so they continue to serve Scarborough kids for another 70 years. And it is important to have a voice that will counteract the “No” campaign that will inevitably be launched that tries to pit our seniors against our kids. We are all impacted by property taxes.  But schools, like public safety and emergency services, are a shared responsibility. Most of us don’t call on the police or EMTs very often if at all. But we all help fund public safety for the time when we might need it. When older folks had their children in school, property taxpayers of yore paid to support their children’s education. The town can find ways to mitigate the impact on fixed income seniors of property tax increases — that is the way forward. We can achieve relief for seniors without sacrificing Scarborough’s youngest generation.

What primary issues do you plan to address while serving in this position?

I will be filling a vacancy created by a school board member that stepped down. I also have no opponent. And as explained above, my main motivation is to influence the school bond vote.  But there are a number of issues I care about that I would focus on when I fill the vacancy. One is looking at the drop in school scores and trying to understand what changes we can make as a community to help get our kids back on track. The drop in scores dates back more than 10 years. In that time, many fundamental changes have come to the classroom. We have introduced screens and digital platforms in almost all parts of our educational environment, and we also lived through a pandemic that further forced instruction onto screens. Has this been healthy for our children? Has all this technology and digitization helped or hindered learning? I am also a firm believer in kids getting outside and connecting with each other and with nature.  We need to help our children build human ties and relationships, not just connect on gaming and social media platforms. What can we do in our schools to help our kids reconnect with each other and be present in the real world?

What would you like voters to know about you?

I am down to earth and practical. I have a son still attending Scarborough High School. I have been active in supporting conservation in town. But I also really care about the future of our community. I believe schools are where residents first develop community bonds and begin their path to volunteering and working for this community. It starts with our children and radiates out to our neighbors and fellow citizens. I want to contribute to our schools and help build community.