Margaret Wheeler: Berwick School Board Election Candidate Introductions

To help our community make an informed choice at the polls, all candidates running for the Berwick School Board seats were invited to submit a brief personal introduction. Each candidate was asked to share who they are, their history in the community, and what motivates them to serve on the School Board. The statements below are presented as submitted. Thank you to our candidates for their willingness to serve the MSAD #60 community!

"My name is Margaret (Peg) Wheeler. I am a Licensed Veterinary Technician with an Associate's Degree in Veterinary Technology, a Bachelor's Degree in Animal Science and one in Environmental Conservation, and a Master's Degree in Adult and Higher Education. I am also a master's level certified Career Coach and have certifications in Veterinary Burnout Prevention and have a national Veterinary Technician Education Specialty designation and have been awarded a Fellows through the Association of Veterinary Technician Educators. I currently serve on the Advisory Board for Penn Foster Animal Programs as well as Massasoit Community College Veterinary Technology Program and White Mountain Community College Veterinary Assistant Program. I am on the Maine State Society for Protection of Animals Board of Directors and I am currently the President Elect of the Maine Veterinary Technician's Association and the Chair of their Legislative Committee. I serve on the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America's Government Relations Committee and I am the Chair of their DEIB Committee. I also am the Chair of the national Association of Veterinary Technician Specialists in Education's Governing Group. I am currently the Campus Program Manager for Rarebreed Veterinary Partners as well as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maine Augusta's Veterinary Technology Program. I have served 30 years in higher education and 50 years in veterinary medicine. Education is a passion of mine and working in higher ed at the University of New Hampshire, York County Community College, and the University of Maine, has given me a unique opportunity to see many MSAD60 grads in that environment and how they measure up to the level of preparation coming from other districts. We are almost always ahead of the curve and we should want to support that and continue to improve.

My husband and I moved to Berwick in the late 80's and I started serving on PTAs and PTOs and sports boosters as my 3 kids went through the Noble system.  I have also served locally as an elected municipal official for over 20 years, the first 6 as a selectwoman, the remaining on the school board. In addition, I served on the Recreation Committee, chaired the town festival committee, served on the police advisory committee and later helped set up and chaired the Berwick Enhanced Neighborhood Policing Committee, I served on the Library Committee, and chaired the Recycling Committee for many years.

I am running again because I am very concerned about what the past few years of rhetoric is doing/has done to our system. For most of the years I sat on the board, observing board norms helped protect our board working environment but more importantly helped support the ability, the comfort level, the trust of teachers and community members who wanted to attend meetings and share experiences. The past three years have seen the degradation of that and as a result we are losing teachers/admin/staff who were key partners in supporting our students. And not only have we made the environment unsustainable for them, we have decimated our pool of candidates as there are plenty of options for these educated, talented professionals to go elsewhere. I'm serving in hopes that my voice can be one of bringing us back to a place of civility where parents are comfortable attending and bringing their children; where teachers/staff are comfortable coming to speak without worrying about facing backlash. I know we can't control everything that goes on online, but we can try to assure that members of the board are all committed to the board norms so that we can spend more time reviewing curriculum and supporting work that truly moves the district forward. 

Specifically, we have talked a lot about reading test scores and we are all thrilled to see what the new reading curriculum will do to support the work our teachers do, but I am a math geek and I teach medical math. This is an area of concern for almost every student we see in higher ed and I hope that we have time going forward to have conversations about our math programs and how the board can support that work that teachers do. And again, I hope to be part of a bigger effort to bring the board back to a more civil and collegial working environment. We have also talked about trying to be more immediately responsive to public comment, understanding that it cannot be a time for debate since the board does have a lot of work to be doing."