Boothbay Harbor sponsor seeks clarifying charter amendment to restore trustees' duties (LD 21‑11)

Representative Holly Stover sponsored LD 21‑11, a charter amendment for Boothbay Boothbay Harbor Community School District that would clarify the roles of the board of trustees and the school committee.

Stover told the committee the amendment corrects language introduced in a 2023 charter change that left a discrepancy between trustees' duties and the school committee's responsibilities. "We are simply seeking to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the board of trustees and the school committee," she said, noting the amendment would make duties mandatory where prior language used 'may.'

Sewell Maddox Jr., chair of the Boothbay Boothbay Harbor CSD board of trustees, described practical problems arising since the 2023 wording change: trustees had been reduced to vague duties, budgets and facilities decisions produced confusion, and the 1953 charter language that once distinguished trustees' business duties from the school committee's educational duties was effectively blurred. Maddox urged the committee to amend the charter language in work session so the trustees' duties regarding reserve funds, facilities, budgets and noneducational capital are explicit.

Committee members asked whether trustees are elected (they are town‑elected), whether local referenda or local control are affected (sponsor and trustee said local voting provisions from LD 17‑53 were not changed by this bill), and whether other CSDs in the state are similarly affected (witness said Boothbay is one of very few remaining structures with both a trustees board and school committee). No opposition testimony was recorded during the hearing.

The hearing record will be available for the committee's work session to consider the sponsor's amendment and local suggestions.