{"id":12597,"date":"2026-09-25T19:07:52","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T19:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/candidates\/donald-pilon\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T19:07:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T19:07:52","slug":"donald-pilon","status":"publish","type":"candidate","link":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/candidates\/donald-pilon\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Pilon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Previous Offices Held<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Served one term as mayor of Saco from 2013\u20132015 and four two-year terms representing Maine House District 131 from 2004\u20132012. Unsuccessfully ran for Saco mayor in 2015 and 2017 and for Saco City Council Ward 4 seat in 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Top Three Priorities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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1. Ensuring sufficient staffing levels to provide manageable workloads for our teachers and support staff. 2. Responsible financial decisions and use of resources by the school board. 3. Professional development opportunities for school board members to focus on effective governance, school law, ethics, policy compliance and other salient topics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Why are you running?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The education of our community\u2019s children is perhaps the most important charge of city government. Our school board is charged with guiding the implementation of that education. Backed by the experience and knowledge of resources that I have gained on the state and local levels, I hope to support and contribute to the school board\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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What is the biggest challenge facing your area\u2019s schools? The biggest opportunity?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Certainly a major challenge is retention of teachers, ed techs and support staff. We need to facilitate strong and interactive team approach with the goal of ensuring student success. Collaborative leadership in every school is needed to assemble cohesive teams and provide them with the resources to support our students. As for opportunity, based on demographic data, Saco does not experience wide changes in population, thus facilitating planning with relatively stable enrollment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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A top issue for many parents is the age of Maine\u2019s school infrastructure. How would you address this issue locally from your position on the school board?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Saco voters took a forward-thinking leap of faith in approving the new school complex slated for completion for the 2028-2029 academic year. The new campus will serve students in preschool through fifth grade. In the meantime, the school board must work with the city\u2019s Facilities and Public Works departments to plan for, and budget for, the significant needs of our current buildings. Those buildings must remain as proper learning environments for our students.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Do you think the state government is too involved in local schooling? Not involved enough? The right amount of involved? Explain your answer.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The right amount. The Legislature has granted control and management of public schools and school administrative units to local school boards. While the Department of Education has limited authority in daily operations, it does have oversight regarding pay scales, accountability standards and legal compliance. The state develops curriculum standards within which local schools create their own curricula. The state funds municipal education budgets at 55%, which helps to reduce the dependence on property taxes for school funding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7161,"template":"","meta":{"voter_guide_candidate_first_name":"Donald","voter_guide_candidate_middle_name":"E.","voter_guide_candidate_last_name":"Pilon","voter_guide_candidate_suffix":"","voter_guide_candidate_race_id":12595,"voter_guide_candidate_age":75,"voter_guide_candidate_hometown":"","voter_guide_candidate_occupation":"Real estate broker","voter_guide_candidate_bio":"In part because of the quality of our schools, my daughter chose to relocate to Saco with her husband and their daughter, who has attended Saco schools since first grade and is now in eighth.","voter_guide_candidate_education":"B.A. in sociology, University of New England; completed coursework at Muskie School of Public Policy","voter_guide_candidate_years_in_municipality":"","voter_guide_candidate_headshot_url":"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/open?id=1YmapQdyGru_XaP5GGA5vYAv32nlm1UDh","voter_guide_candidate_date_filed":"","footnotes":""},"vg_party":[1073],"vg_residence_municipality":[],"class_list":["post-12597","candidate","type-candidate","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","vg_party-democratic"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/12597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/candidate"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/12597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12598,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/12597\/revisions\/12598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"vg_party","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vg_party?post=12597"},{"taxonomy":"vg_residence_municipality","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vg_residence_municipality?post=12597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}