Bill Benzing said that if elected to the Gorham School Committee he would work diligently to be involved with students and get more involved with the community.

“I feel like I would be a fresh face, someone with a different perspective,” said Benzing.

Benzing, 37, and his wife have lived in Gorham since 2002. They have three children and their oldest daughter entered school this year. He is an oral surgeon and owns Southern Maine Oral Surgery in Windham, South Portland and Biddeford with four other dental practitioners. He grew up in Syracuse, N.Y., and is a graduate of the University of Rochester and University of Connecticut, Hartford.

He has served on several dental association boards, including the Maine Dental Association, and feels that experience would translate well into a leadership position with the Gorham School Committee.

“I think that essentially that’s what the school committee is, it’s another board,” Benzing said. “You are essentially creating the policy and the direction for the school by creating the policy and leading that policy up to the superintendent to administrate.”

The opening for school committee intrigued Benzing because he sees Gorham growing, and he wants to be a part in shaping that growth.

“It’s making a lot of changes,” he said. “Five years ago they got a new superintendent (Ted Sharp) who I think has made a lot of changes for the good. He’s trying to standardize the school district.”

Benzing said he is pleased Gorham voters approved building a new White Rock School in a referendum vote in September, saying that it enables the district to move in a positive direction.

“With that we can change it the way it is now with smaller kindergartens to local neighborhood schools that incorporate children from kindergarten through fifth grade.”

If elected, Benzing said he would work to keep the budget balanced while continuing to give teachers the tools they need to be effective in the classroom.

“We want to make sure we’re getting the education that we want,” he said. “But in times that we are in now we need to also draw more attention to the bottom line.”