SALEM TOWNSHIP — The newly-named Regional School Unit 58 faces required changes in voting power of its board members.

Avon, Kingfield, Strong and Phillips must respond to a request from the Maine Department of Education to reallocate the board’s voting power to reflect each town’s population. That change is due to Eustis recently voting to leave the school district.

On Tuesday evening, a 12-member committee, including a selectman, a community member, and a director from each town, met with Superintendent Brenda Stevens at Mt. Abram High School. Kingfield representatives Robin Konieczko, Heather Moody and Kim Jordan; Strong representatives Sue Pratt, Mike Pond and Marc Edwards; Avon representatives John Calloway, Georgia Dixon and Jason Plog and Phillips representatives Andy Phillips, Cheryl Sillanpaa, and Diana Thomas joined Stevens for their first meeting.

Discussion began with the reasons for making any changes to the “one man-one vote” system the board has always used. The district had voted against joining SAD 9 in Farmington because of the perceived unfairness of the weighted vote, Strong director Marc Edwards said.

Strong selectman and former director Mike Pond said merging the two districts was not the same as changing the current proportion of the four towns’ votes. Each town would fight hard to keep its elementary school and would expect each board member to do the same.

“I defended the high school at times when I had children in it, and there were times I would sacrifice the high school to defend my elementary school,” he said.

Pond represented residents who submitted a petition, first to the board and then to the state education commissioner, to give Strong more voting power. The commissioner denied their request, he said, because the petition did not have the required 10 percent of signatures from the entire district. The new voting system, he said, should include a larger board.

Enlarging the board could be a problem, because not all communities have willing candidates. Some board members may be there because they are the only ones willing to serve, new Avon director Jason Plog said.

“I got here without telling anyone how I feel about anything,” he said.

The committee agreed it is facing tough economic challenges. Directors face hours of meetings, criticism from constituents, and a steep learning curve to understand budgets and legal issues.

“We’re going to have some very serious decisions to make,” Avon Selectman John Calloway said. “It ain’t gonna be pretty.”

Starting with examples of voting methods, the committee reviewed their options. Currently, each director has one vote. Larger districts may choose a subdistrict voting method, similar to designating voting wards.

Another option for voting power would be based on a total of 1000 votes, with each member allocated based on the 2010 Census. In another method, the “at large” board representatives would be elected by popular vote, regardless of a candidate’s residence.

Committee members agreed to meet again on July 29 after polling their constituents.

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