AUBURN — The Auburn School Committee voted unanimously Wednesday evening to appoint Karen Mathieu to the vacant Ward 3 seat.
Mathieu, a kindergarten teacher at Sabattus Primary School and a literacy coach for Regional School Unit 4, will fill the seat left by former Chairman Tom Kendall.
Kendall died on the night of Sept. 6 from injuries suffered from falling off a roof.
Before the start of the meeting, the Auburn School Committee held a workshop to discuss how to fill the Ward 3 vacancy.
Committee member Bonnie Hayes said the committee could fill the position through an application process or submit names for consideration and vote on them later in the meeting.
Hayes said that whomever was appointed to Kendall’s position would serve on the committee for the remainder of his term.
After that, residents would vote Nov. 5 to elect someone to a full two-year term.
Mathieu was the only person to submit an application to challenge Kendall for the Ward 3 seat.
Alfreda Fournier, the mayor’s representative on the committee, suggested Mathieu as a candidate, because of her experience as a teacher and the fact that she was already on the ballot.
In other business, the School Committee voted unanimously to approve the transfer of $300,000 from the district’s regular instruction budget to the special education and system administration budgets.
School Department Business Manager Adam Hanson said the special education and system administration cost centers exceeded their budgets this year.
The special education overage, which was $269,861, was due to “higher than expected out-of-district placement tuition and associated health service costs,” Hanson said.
He added that the system administration overage, which was $13,486, occurred because the district contracted with Marshall Communications to help develop a public relations plan to ensure “successful passage at referendum of the new Edward Little High School project,” and an increase in salary costs for central office support staff to “allow (them) to successfully complete their work assignments.”
Hanson said $280,000 would go to special education, while the remaining $20,000 would go to administration.
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