The South Portland City Council has unanimously appointed Elyse Tipton to fill the District 5 seat on the Board of Education, which was left vacant by the resignation of longtime board member Tappan Fitzgerald last month.

Tipton will only serve through next fall, when the city will hold a special election to fill the remaining two years of Fitzgerald’s term, according to City Clerk Emily Scully.

Tipton was one of three city residents to fill out an application to take over from Fitzgerald. The other two were Bruce Bennett and Ryan Edwards. None of the three have ever held public office before.

In her application for the school board vacancy, Tipton said she’s a communications and marketing director for a health strategy center and was previously the development director at the Center for Grieving Children in Portland.

Athough her children are now young adults, “I have kept aware of local school-related issues, even without a first-hand view of a student or parent,” she said in the application materials.

Tipton added, “As a senior manager in nonprofit communications and fundraising, I have regularly participated in hiring, budgeting and strategic planning and would bring that experience to (my) Board of Education service.”

In addition, she said that a career in family literacy and education-related organizations has “taught me the importance of listening, collaborating and asking good questions when making decisions that affect the lives of others, particularly children and families.”

Her goals, if appointed, Tipton said, would be to enable administration and staff across the district to “create environments of learning that promote student achievement and the development of life skills for success.”

– Alex Acquisto, Sun Media Wire

Elyse Tipton