By Emma Bouthillette 

Staff Writer

Kennebunk Selectmen appointed resident John Sharood to an interim position on the Maine School Administrative District 71 Board of Directors Oct. 24.

Sharood, 47, was one of two residents interested in the position after board member Cathy Kremer resigned last month. Selectmen interviewed Sharood and Edward Geoghan for the position Oct. 14, when Sharood said he would focus on three things if appointed. His focal points included completing plans for school consolidation, minimizing an increase in cost for taxpayers during the budget process and continuing to deliver excellent education. 

After two motions that did not pass,  selectmen approved a motion to appoint Sharood recommending he support a zero percent increase in the school budget for the upcoming year. 

“I accept the challenge,” Sharood said.

As a past member of the board, Sharood planned to run for reelection, but while he was visiting colleges with his daughter, his mother – who was in charge of his petition for reelection – missed the deadline. Since then, Sharood has been a Kennebunk representative on the Regional Planning Committee for school consolidation and sees this appointment as another opportunity to contribute to his town.

“I wanted to be appointed for two reasons,” Sharood said. “First, I have two children still in the school system and I think all kids deserve high quality education for their future. Second, I am a taxpayer in Kennebunk and it is important we manage our costs to keep excellent education affordable to our citizens.”

Sharood said his principle area of contribution to the board and planning committee is financial administration. After receiving his degree in economics and political science from Michigan State University, Sharood earned two masters degrees in business administration from Budapest University in Hungary and Purdue University in Indiana. Sharood said he drives an hour and a half to and from work in Gloucester, Mass. as chairman for Gloucester Engineering, which exports products overseas. 

“Finance principles are the same when it comes to cost management,” Sharood said. “It is my area of strength.”

As a Kennebunk taxpayer, Sharood said he understands resident’s frustration that taxes have gone up 35 percent during the past five years, but said the change is primarily driven by the shift in taxes for cost sharing between Kennebunk and Kennebunkport. 

Sharood said areas to consider cutting costs include staff and unused space in buildings as the number of students enrolled in school decreases. He said an engineering assessment of all school buildings is needed to provide an objective determination of what is most expensive to maintain. He said a consistent kindergarten through fifth grade structure would minimize transitions and provide a better educational environment for the students. 

“There is one extra building’s worth of space. We could reduce costs by evaluating that space without impacting the quality of education,” Sharood said. 

When faced with objections over school costs from residents who don’t have children in the school, Sharood said they need to consider when they were a child, someone was paying for their public education and without high quality education schools within the town, property values will decrease. 

“The last thing we want to do is hurt the level of education because it will erode the property values in Kennebunk even more,” he said. 

As a member of the committee planning for school consolidation, Sharood said it would be irresponsible for residents to cast a protest vote because it will have a negative impact on the residents due to higher taxes. He said the committee has figured out a way to reduce the impact consolidation will have on the community, but if residents are not satisfied, he encouraged them to vote out the legislative representatives who approved the consolidation law in the first place. 

“It is time for people to get mad about this, but they need to aim their anger at the real source and regain local control,” he said. 

The silver lining to consolidation is the benefits to education, Sharood said. With spreading costs of kindergarten through fifth grade curriculum and assessing facilities to eliminate portable classrooms, there is no education downside, he said. 

With two Kennebunk High School graduates and two sons still enrolled at Kennebunk High School, Sharood said he wants to maintain high quality education for them as well as other students.

He said when he was on the board previously he dedicated a lot of time to advocate for the students and tax payers of Kennebunk, and plans to do the same in his interim position between now and the end of June 2009.