{"id":2486,"date":"2026-05-22T00:01:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T00:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/candidates\/tanya-r-groce\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T21:30:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T21:30:46","slug":"tanya-r-groce","status":"publish","type":"candidate","link":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/candidates\/tanya-r-groce\/","title":{"rendered":"Tanya R. Groce"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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About the Candidate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Did not respond<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Education<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Graduated from Skowhegan Area High School in 2003. Graduated from Kennebec Valley Community College in 2006 with an associate\u2019s degree in business administration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Previous campaigns and elected office(s) held<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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In April 2024, I was appointed to the MSAD 54 board of directors to fill a vacancy. I then ran in 2025 to fill the remainder of that term (one year) and won.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Top three priorities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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My top three priorities, in no particular order, are: 1) Ensuring students have access to high-quality learning and diverse options. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) Building trust within the community, through transparency and open communication. I want our community to feel informed and involved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) Fiscal responsibility \u2014 maintaining stability while aligning with available resources whenever possible and freezing spending when needed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Why are you running?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I want to run for the school board because I care about our schools and the people. With my daughter graduating from Skowhegan this June and pursuing a career in teaching, I see firsthand the impact our schools have on students\u2019 futures. I also have another child in the middle school. My involvement in the school has shown me the importance of a strong school (staff) and school board, and I want to continue to see our kids grow and succeed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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What is the biggest challenge facing your area\u2019s schools? The biggest opportunity?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I think our biggest challenge is sustainability \u2013 specifically, maintaining services and staff in a rural, lower-income region with limited local tax base and unpredictable outside funding. I think our biggest opportunity would be in expanding available resources, including pursuing additional funding, exploring grant opportunities, strengthening community partnerships, and enhancing mental health and student support systems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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If you could change one thing about how your local schools function, what would it be and why?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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One change I am excited about would be the local cost-sharing formula that is going to go before voters in June. This is to better balance property tax impacts with all towns within MSAD 54. The proposed formula aims to factor in student count rather than just property valuations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Do you think the state government is too involved in local schooling? Not involved enough? The right amount of involved? Explain your answer.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I think that state government is heavily involved in some areas and under-involved in others. The state is involved in funding formulas, curriculum standards, and standardized testing; however, it is not involved enough in funding, teacher shortages\/pay and support and resources.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2812,"template":"","meta":{"voter_guide_candidate_first_name":"Tanya","voter_guide_candidate_middle_name":"R.","voter_guide_candidate_last_name":"Groce","voter_guide_candidate_suffix":"","voter_guide_candidate_race_id":2484,"voter_guide_candidate_age":40,"voter_guide_candidate_hometown":"","voter_guide_candidate_occupation":"Human resource director and treasurer, Town of Winslow","voter_guide_candidate_bio":"","voter_guide_candidate_education":"","voter_guide_candidate_years_in_state":0,"voter_guide_candidate_years_in_municipality":0,"voter_guide_candidate_time_in_area":"34 years","voter_guide_candidate_website":"","voter_guide_candidate_headshot_url":"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/open?id=1HhxT-kXymELp3JIqB-fS14jRECZckpXK","voter_guide_candidate_date_filed":"","voter_guide_candidate_incumbent_years":"","voter_guide_candidate_is_clean_elections":false,"footnotes":""},"vg_party":[1073],"vg_residence_municipality":[602],"class_list":["post-2486","candidate","type-candidate","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","vg_party-democratic","vg_residence_municipality-skowhegan"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/2486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/candidate"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/2486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3370,"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/candidates\/2486\/revisions\/3370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"vg_party","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vg_party?post=2486"},{"taxonomy":"vg_residence_municipality","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/voter-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vg_residence_municipality?post=2486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}