In a contested race for one open seat on the RSU 39 school board, Caribou voters elected Jacob Beaupre, a political newcomer and volunteer firefighter, over three other candidates.
Beaupre received 637 votes, several hundred more than the closest candidate, former school board member Betheny Anderson, who took in 371.
Amanda Jandreau, the former chair of the Caribou Planning Board who resigned from that role in August, received 330. Christina Peterson, a mother of children in the district who works for a global media company, earned 310.
Beaupre, who owns a construction company, said Wednesday that he operates on the foundation of “our children first.”
“I want to be an advocate for our children, ensuring families have a voice in their child’s education,” Beaupre said. “I want to help navigate the recruitment and retention side of hiring inside of RSU 39, ensuring they have the resources to lead our children with the best opportunities. Lastly, transparency to our families, faculty, and our taxpayers is paramount. We are all working towards the same goal, our children.”
Beaupre said he wants to make trades programs more accessible for students, calling the trades — of which Caribou offers a variety of programs through its Regional Technology Center — the “backbone of America.”
“I have had a dream for many years that one day, our trades programs and blue-collar community members would be as revered as our doctors, lawyers, and our collegiate elite,” he said.
It has been an atypical year for the school district, which is comprised of Caribou and Stockholm, a town of 250 people situated northwest of Caribou. Voters vehemently rejected two school budgets this summer that would have marked the third consecutive year the district’s budget rose by more than $1 million, though with a significantly decreased taxpayer impact compared to previous years.
It was the first and second time the district has ever had a budget rejected at referendum. Voters finally approved the district’s budget in a third attempt in September after more than $300,000 in cuts that reduced the local ask of Caribou taxpayers below the previous fiscal year.
