South Portland School Board Vice Chair Adrian Dowling resigned effective Monday, making the decision just days after recall papers were taken out against him and school board Chair Rosemarie De Angelis.

Ali AL Dhamen, a registered voter in South Portland, filed affidavits to recall De Angelis and Dowling last Thursday, days after the board voted to close James O. Kaler Elementary School and reconfigure the remaining four elementary schools by grade levels. 

In the recall affidavits, AL Dhamen said that the members’ support for grade-level reconfiguration “overrides unanimous opposition expressed by parents and community members at public workshops.”

Dowling, whose term was due to expire in 2027, said that he voted in compliance with state law and school department policy.

“Recalling an elected official based solely on a difference of opinion is almost certainly not what South Portland’s founders had in mind when they wrote the city charter,” Dowling said. “If that precedent is set, no elected official in this community will be able to serve for more than a month or two, because there have always been disagreements and there always will be.”

And this budget season has been particularly painful.

The school district had to cut about $8.4 million from its proposed budget to hold the tax increase to 6%, the higher end of what school board members and city councilors have recommended, Assistant Superintendent Johanna Prince said. 

About 50 department employees were notified last month that their positions would be eliminated.

“Being a board of education member was never about me.” Dowling said. “It was about civic duty and giving back to the community. I hope whoever replaces me will feel the same way.”

Many parents and community members say they felt blindsided and devastated by the decision to close Kaler and reconfigure the remaining elementary schools, taking to Facebook and lining up at meetings to comment.

The school district presented elementary school reconfiguration as a cost-saving solution at budget workshops during the past few months in the midst of a challenging budget season.

The district first recommended closing Waldo T. Skillin Elementary School because it would be the most cost-effective, but a majority of school board members said they would not shutter the city’s most diverse elementary school. 

The district came back with a proposal a month ago to close Helena H. Dyer Elementary School and modify the attendance zones for the remaining four schools to balance school size.

Closing either Dyer or Kaler would result in similar savings —  $3.1 million for this year’s budget and $16.4 million over the next five years, according to initial research presented at a budget workshop last month.

In the reconfiguration plan, Dyer and Dora L. Small elementary schools will serve pre-kindergarten through first grade, and Frank I. Brown and Skillin elementary schools will house second through fourth grades, relocating hundreds of students, not just the 164 who currently attend Kaler.

Class sizes will increase for all grade levels, and some staff members will have to move schools.

The school district will hold meetings at each of the elementary schools for staff and families within the next two weeks to hear feedback and questions about the reconfiguration process. 

As for the recall, each petition must be returned to the city within 45 days with signatures from at least 10% of registered voters based on the last municipal election. If the petition meets the threshold, the recall election could occur at the municipal election on June 9, depending on City Council discretion.