The race to fill four school board positions in Regional School Unit 40 has become a referendum on the group after it voted last week to eliminate local protections for transgender students and earlier considered banning certain books from the library, in 2022.
Eight candidates are vying for four school board positions in Union-based Regional School Unit 40, just days after the board made a controversial decision to eliminate local protections for transgender and gender expansive students.
Of the eight candidates running for the four school board positions, almost half have endorsed either the board’s decision last week or the earlier proposal to ban books from the libraries, including the controversial memoir “Gender Queer,” according to reporting by the Courier-Gazette and Lincoln County News. The other half have said they disagree with those decisions and believe the transgender protections should remain.
On Tuesday, voters in the towns of Waldoboro, Union and Warren all have a chance to vote for candidates on either side of that divide. There are two contested seats in Waldoboro, and one each in Union and Warren.
The candidates who have supported either ending the transgender protection policy or banning books are Naomi Aho, an incumbent running for re-election in Warren; Timothy Wood in Union; and Steven Karp in Waldoboro. Another candidate, Tabatha MacArthur in Waldoboro, has said she supports parental rights and accountability on her campaign signs, but has not responded to messages from reporters, according to the Gazette and Lincoln County News.
On the other side, the candidates who have opposed removing books from the library or ending the transgender policy are Torry Verrill in Warren; Rachel Wilcox in Union; and Benjamin Stickney and write-in candidate Leah Shipps in Waldoboro, according to the newspapers.
