FRYE ISLAND – For the first time since 2010, the town of Frye Island has appointed a representative to the School Administrative District 6 Board of Directors.

On Nov. 4, the Frye Island Board of Selectmen voted to appoint Betsy Gleysteen, an off-season resident of Scarborough, as the town’s designated school board member. Gleysteen is set to serve the final year of a three-year term that ends in October 2015.

Gleysteen is a business analyst and systems project manager with Maine Medical Center who has owned a home on Frye Island since 2000. She also serves as the secretary of the Frye Island Recreation Committee.

“My role, as I see it, primarily is to understand how the board works, and understand the funding process,” Gleysteen said.

Gleysteen said she volunteered to fill the spot “temporarily” and is “not committed to a time frame.”

Frye Island is a seasonal summer community that has no students enrolled in the school district. This year, the school district assessed the island’s taxpayers an estimated $1.41 million – or about 6.1 percent of the local share of the SAD 6 budget.

Oleg Svetlichny served as Frye Island’s school board representative from 2001 to 2010. Since 2010, Frye Island officials have been unable to recruit an island property owner for the volunteer position, Gleysteen said.

“Frye did consistently look for a board member after Oleg completed his service,” Gleysteen said. “The Frye select board did not specifically ask me to be the SAD 6 representative. I volunteered, and they accepted.”

Todd Delaney, the chairman of the School Board, said he welcomed Gleysteen’s appointment. The four-year Frye Island vacancy has been a perennial concern for sitting board members, he said.

“To be honest, it’s been a concern addressed by a number of board members,” Delaney said. “We really want them to seat somebody because they should be represented.”

Gleysteen will join 12 other directors, who collectively represent the towns of Standish, Hollis, Buxton, and Limington. Standish has five seats on the board, Hollis has two, Limington has two, and Buxton has four. One of Buxton’s seats is vacant.

Until she attended her first board meetings last month, Gleysteen said she was not aware of the board’s weighted vote system for roll call votes, which was mandated by the Legislature in 1998. On close votes, the board uses the voting system that weighs the importance of votes based on the student population of each of the towns. While each of the Buxton members possesses 77 votes in the weighted system, the Frye Island representative has only one vote.

“So when I vote, my vote counts as 1/308th as much as Buxton, 1/170ths as much as Hollis, 1/136th as much as Limington, and 1/380th as much as Standish,” Gleysteen said. “My initial impression until I learn more is the Frye Island vote is weighted so low so that it doesn’t matter so much,” Gleysteen said.

Delaney declined to comment on whether the weighted vote system is fair.

“If you want to complain about the system, go complain to the Legislature,” he said.

Furthermore, Delaney said, the board rarely resorts to the weighted vote, since it’s usually clear which way the board is leaning. Most votes are conducted by a more traditional show of hands.

“If you cry foul on weighted votes, you’re basically crying foul once every couple months,” he said. “I don’t remember Oleg ever really complaining about it when he was a board member.”

Svetlichny could not be reached for comment.

Gleysteen said she appreciated the fact that Frye Island has a seat at the table.

“They do give us a voice,” Gleysteen said. “So we have an equal voice at the table.”

“They’re very welcoming, there’s no doubt about it,” she added.

However, Gleysteen suggested that the lack of volunteers for the Frye Island board position in the last four years may be related to the weighted vote system.

“I think there’s probably a sense that the contribution Frye Island is able to make to the board is fairly low,” Gleysteen said.

Betsy Gleysteen