BREWER, Maine — The tone during Tuesday’s candidates forum at Brewer Community School’s performing arts center was amicable and agreeable, until someone asked about requiring the school superintendent to live in Brewer.
School board candidate Tyler Smith got the ball rolling when he said he personally doesn’t agree with a referendum passed 579-454 by Brewer voters last June to require Brewer’s school superintendent to live in Brewer after three years on the job.
Smith said he thought it unnecessarily limited the pool of candidates.
After 12-year board member Mark Chambers agreed, saying he thinks it “puts us in a weaker position to lure a great candidate,” incumbent City Councilor Larry Doughty bristled at the criticism.
“This argument about not being able to get someone of quality because of a residency requirement goes against what we’ve all been saying about what a great place Brewer is to live in,” Doughty countered. “Is that such an unreasonable condition? I think it’s just a red herring. It’s the board’s job to get someone who can do the job and find someone who wants to live in Brewer.”
Doughty — a 24-year city councilor who proposed the requirement — was in the minority among the other two council candidates and six board candidates on that issue, however.
Doughty is running against Mayor Jerry Goss and challenger Matthew Vachon for one of two available council seats. Six candidates — Mark Beal, Mark Farley, Kevin Forrest, Dani O’Halloran, Chambers and Smith — all are newcomers running for two school board seats.
The other four board candidates were united in their opposition to the residency requirement, as is Goss.
“I was a dissenting vote on this issue and thought it would limit the pool,” said Goss, a former Brewer High School principal. “The pool isn’t very deep. It’s not where you live, it’s what you do.”
Vachon tried to strike a more conciliatory tone.
“We should represent the people, not change a requirement voted on by the people,” Vachon said. “I think that’s disrespectful.
“It makes sense to me that we have a system where someone can live here three years before deciding on whether to stay or not.”
About 75 members of the public attended the forum to hear the candidates answer their questions on pertinent issues.
The residency issue was the flashpoint of the entire evening as candidates largely agreed on every other issue, including branding Brewer to attract more business, teachers working without contracts, special education programs, student retention, and freeing money up for a new walking/riding trail system by pressuring the Maine Department of Transportation to release funds earmarked for the project.
Other issues included school choice, curriculum offerings, and strategies for business development.
O’Halloran said she’d like to see Brewer establish a science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, academy much like the one introduced by Bangor’s school system this year to attract more students as Maine heads more toward a school choice system.
Regarding economic development, Goss suggested trying to encourage the building of a hotel and conference center in Brewer, perhaps near the CancerCare of Maine facility on Whiting Hill Road.
Doughty talked about the demolition of Washington Street School and its conversion into a public recreation and parks area with two more sports fields.
Several candidates pointed to the development of the city’s new industrial park.
A couple of board candidates suggested revamping or adding to the school system’s curriculum structure.
Chambers suggested establishing a core and/or co-op program by teaming up with an outside partner such as The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor. Farley suggested combining previously separate classes such as math and industrial arts to offer a more practical teaching approach. Forrest proposed having guidance officials provide more learning alternatives to better reach certain students.
Doughty, you and I don’t agree often, but I’m with you on this one. Requiring superintendents to live in the town they serves makes them vested not only in the schools they supervise but also in the tax burden their school budgets impose.
But how would you feel about a job that requires you to live in a certain town? Remember, this is supposed to be a free country.
Every job has conditions. If you want to be a commercial pilot, you have to agree to be drug tested at the request of your employer. If you want to be a police officer, you have to agree to a criminal records check, if you want to be a school teacher, you have to be fingerprinted in some states. If you don’t like the conditions, DON’T APPLY. Simple.
This is ridiculous. You should want the best person for the job, and if that person happened to live in Bangor, Orono, Brewer…who cares?
Brewer created/consolidated its fire chief/police chief into a new position..director of public safety or whatever. Why isn’t THAT person required to live in Brewer? It is not important for that person to have to live in Brewer? You know, to make sure he is “vested” when it comes to tax burdens and budgets. The hypocrisy with this decision is endless. There are not 30-40 people applying for all of these superintendent positions. I can’t believe the Brewer citizens who voted for this are so incredibly short-sighted to believe that the residency requirement somehow makes the position more attractive to qualified candidates…and Larry Doughty could not be more wrong on this issue. The people who are on the school committee said it was a bad idea (you know, the people who have to find and hire superintendents), but why listen to them when you have people have zero idea about what goes into this process deciding on how difficult that process should be.
Nothing about the decision has improved the education in Brewer. It has harmed it, and that is clear to see to anybody who has a clue about how this stuff works, but somewhere, there are some people saying “Yes sah! By golly, if we are gonna pay you some money, we gonna make you live in Brewah….well, unless you are one of countless other city employees” Of course, there is very limited housing in Brewer anyway, but we won’t even go down that road.
The voters of Brewer have spoken; this topic should not even be on the table.
it doesn’t mean it was a good idea.
Whether or not it is a good idea is irrelevant; it was put out to vote and the residents decided they wanted it.
It was only put before the voters because the city council saw fit to interfere with the authority and duties of the school board. Larry Doughty has no idea what he did by introducing this issue that made it’s way all the way to the voting booth. Would you uproot your family in this housing market if you already had a pretty good job where your wife and kids were happy?
This was Larry’s idea from the start. The city council had no business getting involved with a school board issue such as this. Sure , the average person walks into the voting booth-reads the referendum-ya, that makes sense and votes yes. Most people would vote yes to increase the speed limit on the interstate too-that does not mean we should do that does it? It does not make any sense and most towns don’t put themselves in such a ridiculous position. Why do we even have a school board if they can’t make that decision?
Why does a small city like Brewer need a public safety director (who got a 25% pay increase)? What a gd scam…we are not Boston or NYC.
A 25% increase for this position is still far less than the combined salaries of a police chief and fire chief. Perry is good man and a hard worker. I hope he does not burn out quickly.
So nobody in the current police or fire dept is getting paid as the leaders? Your suggesting they are all under Perry’s direct supervision?
So a guy in with a PHD in education making over $100,000.00 a year, with a wife who’s more often than not a professional as well is going think about his own house taxes when he makes decisions for the school system? Hmmm, a 2% increase in the school budget is going to raise my taxes a couple of hundred bucks…no way those kids need a music teacher. Is that what you are saying?
I think the more you can get your employees to be vested in your community, the better. Look at President Kennedy from UMO who went to CT and then spent all his time working “remotely” from Minnesota. That didn’t work out very well…
Communities all over Maine are having a very difficult time finding people who even want these superintendent jobs. Why make them jump through hoops when some other city won’t. We lose.
Really?? And you know this how? Of course, maybe it explains why Bangor’s superintendent Webb hired a guy who cheated on exams.
I know quite a few folks in education- and I read as you do. It’s a thankless position with too much time spent cutting people and programs that in many cases should not be eliminated. These people have to take orders from folks serving on schools boards who quite often don’t know much about the topic. Being elected to serve does not mean one is quantified to do so.
““This argument about not being able to get someone of quality because of a residency requirement goes against what we’ve all been saying about what a great place Brewer is to live in,” Doughty countered.”
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So FORCING somebody to live in Brewer in order to be its superintendent is really just a strong handed way of saying what a great place Brewer is to live?…..oh, well since you put it that way….
You have set up a system where you could very well have a revolving door of superintendents….in for 3 years and then gone, but hey, as long as this decision makes the education system in Brewer better (which it doesn’t), then why not, right?
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“Is that such an unreasonable condition? I think it’s just a red herring. It’s the board’s job to get someone who can do the job and find someone who wants to live in Brewer.”
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No, this inane decision made the board’s job harder. Before, it was “find the best person for the job.” Now it is “find a person who lives in Brewer or is willing to uproot their family/sell their home and move to Brewer.” Considering how few people out there want to be superintendents, this WILL lower the pool. Competition is a good thing. Brewer should want as many candidates as possible, but this stupid decision will limit the number.When you are hiring professionals who are most likely established, they might already have homes in whatever town. If the best candidate lives in, Orono, for example, then that person knows they must sell their house and (uproot their kids from schools if they have any) in order to take a superintendent position 15 minutes away. Yep, great idea everybody.Of course this requirement will most likely attract 1st time superintendents who are looking for a start since they want to be superintendents. Apparently Brewer, by their residency requirement, is not interested in getting established/experienced superintendents.It scares me that this residency requirement is not seen as a bad decision by every voter in Brewer. How they got so duped into voting for this is scary.
How about requiring ALL city employees live in town?
Many years ago I had the pleasure of having the chair of the school board and the superintendent’s sons in my class. This was my first year teaching at 22 years of age. It went well, but looking back, I did , perhaps unconsciously treat these guys a little different. When the Superintendent is required to live the city where he works, everyone is put in an uncomfortable position. The teachers, the drama coach, the sport coaches and so on.
Today when you go in the grocery store and buy a 6 pack-yes teachers do drink-you have a reasonable chance of a student having that posted on their Facebook page in minutes. There’s no real upside for someone applying for this job having to move to Brewer-not for anyone-except for Larry Doughty I guess.
Thw whole city is a joke anyways!
I love how Matt Vachon is the only candidates who is talking about his respect for the voters of Brewer. All the other candidates are on a soap box explaining their position on the issue.
Mr. Vachon, you just got my vote.
Most Brewer voters didn’t know much about it before they voted on the issue. It makes sense when you read it quickly, but in reality it will hurt the students in Brewer if a great candidate can not be attracted. I guarantee you that if the voters had a chance yto make that same vote on a variety of City positions they would do the same thing. The head of police and fire lives in Bangor and I don’t really care do you?
And you know this how?