SHELBURNE — In advance of Monday’s town election, Shelburne hosted a Candidates Night at the Senior Center on Thursday, allowing voters to engage with the people they’ll soon be voting for.
With the exception of a Mohawk Trail Regional School District School Committee race for a one-year unexpired term, all positions on the ballot are uncontested. There are five seats for which no names are on the ballot that may be won with write-in votes.
The only incumbent on the ballot present at Candidates Night was Andrew Baker, who is running for re-election to the Selectboard. Baker has served on the Selectboard for six years and was previously on the School Committee and Cultural Council.
“It’s been my privilege over the past six years to serve the town as liaison to the Police and Highway departments, Town Hall staff, the library, Village Partnership and Sewer District,” Baker began.
Among his initiatives for Shelburne’s future are creating a pocket park, revitalizing town institutions such as the Village Information Center and the Greater Shelburne Falls Area Business Association (GSFABA), and increasing resident participation on town boards and projects.
Alex Bogel and Jason Cusimano, the two candidates running in the election’s singular contested race, for a seat on the School Committee, were also present. They fielded the majority of questions from audience members both on Zoom and in person.
Bogel has spent over 20 years in education, teaching high school in private and public schools, and has served on various union committees.
Bogel noted his experience in budget creation and oversight, as well as his experience as a parent of children attending public schools in the region. While his daughters were at Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School, he recalled the challenge of open communication he experienced as a parent.
“That reinforced, for me, the need for transparency, for active and open lines of communication,” he said. “I’m really eager for this opportunity to join the fight, and to try to get Mohawk and all our feeder town elementary schools feeling sustained and sustainable.”
Cusimano has four years of past experience on the School Committee. While there, he served on various subcommittees focused on policy, personnel, hiring, buildings and budgeting.
“In the year that I’ve been off, I was on the hiring committee for the current superintendent as a citizen, and then I joined the capital project planning group for December through May or so,” he said.
Cusimano is an alumnus of Colrain Central School and Mohawk Trail Regional School, and will have had at least one child in the school district for 35 years straight. He said he has missed the School Committee during his year off, and feels like “the work just isn’t done.”
When questioned about the challenges the school district faces, Cusinamo responded, “One of my biggest concerns right now is retention. It’s choicing out, going to private schools, charter schools.” Cusinamo said families are choosing to move away from public schools, and that better communication between the community and the schools may help retain students.
Bogel agreed, though he combined both the issue of retention and communication into one, suggesting that treating the district like an interactive business, with an investment in human capital, could ensure students and parents feel known and cared for.
“The more that we can do to have our actions and our priorities directly reflect and be influenced by what the students and their families see as problems, and what they need, and what they value, then we’re in a position for a really successful campaign for the best kind of marketing there is, which is student-to-student, friend-to-friend, family-to-family,” Bogel continued.
Questions surfaced about including school staff in School Committee decisions, as well as communication and input from Shelburne residents who have no children in the schools. Candidates agreed that including teachers, staff and community stakeholders in such decisions is important to create schools that reflect community interest and support families. Likewise, both candidates rallied around the idea that teacher input, especially, could be implemented through a staff voting position on the committee.
Polls in Monday’s town election will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Cowell Gymnasium, 51 Maple St.
The remaining uncontested positions on the ballot are as follows:
■Town clerk, one-year term — Joe Judd, incumbent
■Moderator, one-year term — Roland Giguere, incumbent
■Shelburne Free Public Library trustee, three-year term — Thomas Hale
■Housing Authority, five-year term — Kim Levitch, incumbent
■Tree warden, one-year term — James Richardson, incumbent
■Constable, three-year term — Laura Manners, incumbent
Additionally, there are no candidates on the ballot for:
■Assessor, three-year term
■Shelburne Free Public Library trustee, three-year term
■Two Planning Board seats, one with a three-year unexpired term and another with a five-year term
■Recreation Committee, five-year term