Republican gubernatorial frontrunner Bobby Charles is criticizing a local school district after its board voted to end kindergarten classes in two of its towns.
The candidate, who grew up in Wayne and now lives outside that town’s school district in Leeds, was among the community members who went to a Wednesday meeting to push back against the plan to send kids in Wayne and Mount Vernon, a pair of small Kennebec County towns, to other schools in the Readfield-based Regional School Unit 38.
Charles’ appearance shows how Republicans have stepped up activism before local school boards that have become venues to argue over property taxes and culture-war issues. His activism is also notable because of his lofty campaign promises to eliminate income taxes and reduce property taxes, two things that are hard to do at the same time.
The local controversy erupted in March, when the RSU 38 board voted to begin a strategic planning process. Starting next fall, they are going to send kindergarteners attending the Wayne and Mount Vernon elementary schools to Readfield and Manchester.
Some residents have come to board meetings since then to express anger that the decision to relocate kindergarteners was made quickly. An online petition is currently circulating among Wayne residents trying to reverse the decision.
“When there are questions about that trust, when there are questions about due process, it casts a very long shadow,” Charles said at the Wednesday meeting.
It put him in conflict with another well-known figure in Maine Republican politics, board chair Shawn Roderick of Readfield, a strategist who now works for U.S. Sen. Susan Collins. He dismissed criticism about the process, saying the moves have been debated for months in meetings and noting inaccurate information he has seen on social media.
“You can rile people up,” he said at the meeting. “We live in the world of shock and awe politics. I live it every day.”
The board has voted twice on motions to reverse the move, and twice rejected that proposal. Board member David Twitchell, who lives in Wayne and voted to overturn the plan, said that it was “run through very quickly.”
“I feel the school board blatantly refused to adjust to community concerns,” he said.
In the last decade, the western Kennebec County district pre-K and kindergarten population dropped from 150 students to 91, the lowest since the district started offering preschool in 2005. That drop is expected to ripple through the rest of the school’s grades over the coming decade.
That could mean closing the schools in Wayne and Mount Vernon altogether, unless communities decide to prioritize maintaining local schools. Roderick and others with the district have emphasized that this move is not related to any future closure.
Charles, a longtime lobbyist who also served in the administrations of presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, has styled himself like President Donald Trump in the seven-way gubernatorial primary. He has been the leading candidate in polls of the field mostly made up of Augusta outsiders. Rival David Jones attacked him at the end of a debate last month.
The frontrunner has vowed to eliminate the income tax — which generates about half of state revenue — within four years while cutting local property taxes and “rebuilding schools.” States with no income tax, including New Hampshire, generally rely on property taxes.
In an interview, Charles said he was prioritizing the Readfield-area school issue because the elementary school was an iconic part of his hometown. His mother, Doris Holman, who died in 2024, was a teacher and artist.
“They didn’t fully grasp how deeply committed people are in this state to their elementary schools,” he said of the board.
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between the Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.