WESTBROOK — The Westbrook Education Association executive board is being criticized for its process in endorsing candidates for School Committee, with some saying the uncommon move is in retaliation to rocky contract negotiations early this year. 

After years of watching from the sidelines, the WEA executive board decided to get politically involved this election season by endorsing candidates in the contested races for School Committee and City Council, according to WEA President Jared Ruthman.  

Questionnaires were sent out to candidates in an effort to find out more about their stances, Ruthman said, and in the end the association’s executive board made its endorsements “based on the answers we received and our overall goal for education.” Not all of the association’s members were consulted about making the endorsements.

“We have had teachers reach out to us and say ‘I hope you don’t think we are part of this,'”  said School Committee Vice Chairman Suzanne Joyce.

“I have an issue. In all my time with the council and school board, the WEA has never come out to support one particular candidate. I’ve never seen it before,” Joyce said.

Giovanna Bechard, director of communications for the Maine Education Association, said “every association does what it feels is best for the local association.”

“Some (endorse candidates), some don’t. It totally depends on what is going on locally,” Bechard said.

Nancy Goan, an art teacher at Westbrook Middle School and a WEA member for more than 30 years, said she was “extremely disappointed and concerned” about the endorsements.

“The WEA has never gotten involved like this in politics during my lengthy tenure as a teacher in the district. This endorsement by the WEA is really not an endorsement for a couple of candidates that they know very little about, but in fact, an attack against a couple of long-time serving school board members who have done an admirable job during their previous years of service,” she wrote in an email to the American Journal.

The WEA, in an announcement Oct. 1, endorsed Beth Schultz over incumbent Jim Violette for the Ward 5 School Committee seat and Kristen Beahm over incumbent Veronica Bates for the Ward 2 seat. The group also endorsed Mike Foley over Deb Shangraw for the at-large City Council seat and Isabel Mullin over incumbent Gary Rairdon for the Ward 4 seat.

Violette, the longtime School Committee chairman, has served on the committee since 2010. Bates, chairman of the board’s Finance Committee, has been a member since 2011. WEA endorsed Schultz and Beahm over the incumbents “because they are experienced educators who we think will bring constructive and positive change to the school committee,” Ruthman said in an Oct. 1 release announcing the endorsements.

The association highlighted the educational background of Schultz and Beahm. Schultz is a longtime teacher and administrator in the Bonny Eagle, Biddeford and Gray/New Gloucester school systems. Beahm is the assistant director of academic assessment at the University of Southern Maine.

This is the first time Violette and Bates have faced challengers for their School Committee seats.

Bates said she was disappointed, but is not letting the lack of endorsement get to her.

“I can’t let the action of a few people dictate how I act,” she said Wednesday. “I think my record speaks for itself. I’ve done a lot of good for the district and hope the teachers who do live in this city and the voters remember that when they go to the polls.”

Violette said Wednesday that he knows he has the support of many teachers in the district and refrained from additional comment.

Goan said the choice of which candidates to support was made without input from teachers. Most of middle school colleagues were never consulted about the association’s endorsement process or the reasons for selecting the particular candidates.

“I do not appreciate being spoken for when I have never been spoken to,” she said. She supports Violette and Bates for re-election.

Ruthman, a high school social studies teacher, said that although teachers were not included in endorsement discussions, the process was vetted through the Maine Education Association and was “transparent.”

Goan said WEA’s decision to endorse candidates for the first time was spurred by the contract negotiations between the WEA and school committee earlier this year.

The association received a fair contract with an “excellent” benefits package said Joyce, who backs Violette for re-election.

“Anything we said no to (was because) our hands were tied,” Joyce said, referring in part to the association’s request for more teacher planning time. A state mediator ruled the request could not be settled through negotiation because it was more of an educational policy request.

“The elected representatives of the WEA, many of which who don’t even live in Westbrook, were left with a bitter taste in their mouths when contract negotiations didn’t end the way they hoped over the past year and as a result, Westbrook needed a change,” Goan said in her email. 

“This was never more evident during this year’s school opening when (Rutman) spoke negatively against the negotiation process and cited we cannot have our city end up like what has recently happened in Scarborough so it’s time for a change and we basically need to start voting out school board members,”  she said.

A “large number” of staff members walked out during Ruthman’s “rant,” she said.

Ruthman dismissed the idea that contract negotiations were the reason for the endorsements.

“I can’t speak for people’s interpretations. We are participating in a democratic process, and we based our decision on the expertise and the philosophies put forth by the candidates,” he said. “We are advocating for candidates who have five decades of education experience. I can’t see how that is a bad thing for teachers.”

Ruthman said people have agendas and are “using those agendas to put a spin on their interpretation” of the endorsements.

The whole situation, Ruthman said, has “taken a turn for the negative.”

“Some people are creating perceptions that aren’t true,” he said.

Deb Shangraw, a candidate for City Council who did not return the WEA’s candidate questionnaire, said she was disturbed that the WEA used the school system server to make its endorsement announcement to members. The email also encouraged teachers who lived in the city to support the endorsed candidates and be a part of the group’s election activity.

“People get fired for tampering with employee records to influence an election. That is how I see it,” she said.

Michael Kelley can be reached at 780-9106 or [email protected] or on Twitter @mkelleynews.