After being elected June 9 to a three-year term on the Maine School Administrative District 17 board of directors, Michael Lance notified Paris Town Manager Natalie Andrews that he will not be able to accept the position.

Lance, the state representatives to Maine House District 79, wrote in a June 12 email to Andrews that his spouse works for SAD 17. According to Maine statute, people married to school district employees are ineligible to serve its school board.

“As the state representative to Paris, I do not want to violate this law and place the selectboard in such a tenuous position,” Lance said in his email. “The next board meeting will take up the search for a new superintendent. It should be all hands-on deck. I want to thank the good residents of Paris who voted for me.”

Lance won the Republican primary election for District 79 on June 9. He is also chairman of Paris’ ad hoc committee, formed this spring to research possible withdrawal from SAD 17.

A special select board meeting is scheduled Monday night, June 15, immediately following Paris’ annual town meeting to appoint a new director to SAD 17 board.

Selectmen will also choose a board chair and vice-chair for the fiscal year starting July 1.

The town meeting starts at 6 p.m. in the auditorium at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, 256 Main St., South Paris.

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