Portland School Board Candidate Profiles & Other Races 2023

PORTLAND BALLOT 2023

SCHOOL BOARD & OTHER CANDIDATE PROFILES

This year Portland (ME) voters will decide several city council, school board, and other seats. Below find school board and water district candidate profiles with backgrounds and why they are running in their own words.

School Board At-Large
3-year term / 2 candidates – Usira Ali & Cody Austin Sims

Usira Ali

secure.actblue.com/donate/usira-ali-for-school-board-at-large-1

Education: King Middle School, Portland High graduate, and Bowdoin College alumni

Occupation: Medical Assistant at Greater Portland Health

Political/community experience: I do not have any prior political experience. I worked on self-directed community health education projects with immigrant and low income communities as an undergrad.

Reason you’re running: I am running for the School Board At-Large to work alongside teachers, parents, board and community members to advocate for resources, college preparedness opportunities, and work towards improving the educational gap.

Cody Austin Sims

linktr.ee/simsforschoolboard

Education: M.A. Literature, Texas State University, 2012; B.A. English, Sam Houston State University, 2008

Occupation: Warehouse Fulfillment @ North Spore (Prv. Product Operations Program Manager, soon to be full time at home father to twins)

Political/community experience: Community organizer and campaign, 10 years (issues include paid sick leave, raising minimum wage, hazard pay, rent control, milk bank access, utility reform, campaign finance reform, and multiple Texas congressional races). Chair, Portland Rent Board, April 2020 – April 2021. Co-chair, Maine Public Power, 2022 (collaborated statewide to get Pine Tree Power on this November’s ballot).

Reason you’re running: Portland children and Portland parents deserve the absolute best schools in Maine. As a soon-to-be parent of twins, I am running to help make that happen. Because, in the face of expected budget cuts at the state and federal level, and in anticipation of the attacks on equity we are seeing rise up in Maine, I want to protect and help advance the excellent work already done on the Portland Promise. Protect its funding and protect its principles around excellence and equity. Ensuring that every child in Portland receives the highest quality, most equitable education will be my work.

School Board District 4
3-year term / uncontested

Fatuma Noor

Fatuma Noor is running uncontested for the school board seat currently held by Aura Russell-Bedder, who did not take out nomination papers. Noor did not respond to our candidate profile requests.

School Board District 5
3-year term / uncontested

Sarah Brydon 

facebook.com/sarahbrydonforportland

Education:  B.A. from the University of New Hampshire; J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law

Occupation: Compliance Analyst

Political/community experience: I am currently the District 5 representative on the Board of Education, and I am the chair of the Finance, Operations, and Personnel committee. Before I was elected to the Board of Education, I served on the board of the Foundation for Portland Public Schools and was the chair of the Development committee for that organization.   

Reason you’re running: I want to continue the work of making sure we’re serving Portland’s students as well as we possibly can. 

Portland Water District (uncontested)
5-year term

Frederick McCann

fred4water.com

Education: BS in Computer Science from University of Southern Maine

Occupation: Director of Technology, Beable Education

Political/community experience: I was elected to fill a vacancy on the Portland Water District Board of Trustees in November 2022. I’ve been representing Portland on that board for the past year.

Reason you’re running: I’m running for reelection to the Portland Water District Board of Trustees because I care deeply about the quality and safety of our drinking water. I have been a vocal advocate for testing water from Sebago Lake for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS or “forever chemicals”), which are harmful to human health and the environment. PFAS has not been detected in our drinking water and we must continue to protect Sebago Lake and the watershed to prevent future contamination.

PFAS has been detected in our wastewater. We do not currently have commercially viable solutions to break down PFAS in our wastewater. I support infrastructure spending to reduce the volume of PFAS contaminated sludge going to landfills until such solutions are viable.

Building and operating a future treatment facility that could eliminate PFAS is too expensive for the Portland Water District alone, so we may have to partner with other regional entities to address this issue. I want to ensure that any regional facility in which we participate would be publicly owned and operated in a manner similar to the Portland Water District, not by a private entity.

Peaks Island Council (uncontested)
4 Seats – 3-year term

Frederick Somers

Peaks Island Council is an advisory group that was created to provide a stronger voice for residents of Peaks Island in city matters. The only candidate to return nomination papers is Frederick Somers, who did not respond to our candidate profile requests.

To view city council candidate profiles, visit https://thewestendnews.com/portland-city-council-candidate-profiles-portland-ballot-2023.

Election Day

Polls open Tuesday, November 7th at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Residents can register to vote on Election Day. To register to vote you must provide documents to show both proof of identity and proof of residency. A driver’s license or state ID card with a current address meets both criteria. View a list of Portland’s polling places here: https://www.portlandmaine.gov/177/Polling-Places.

Absentee Voting

Voters may request an absentee ballot online or by calling the city clerk’s office at 207-874-8677. In-person absentee voting begins Tuesday, October 10th, in the State of Maine Room, Second Floor of City Hall. The hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. On Thursday, November 2nd, the clerk’s office will remain open until 7:00 p.m. This is the last day to absentee vote unless granted an allowed special circumstance. To learn more about absentee voting in Portland, visit https://www.portlandmaine.gov/173/Absentee-Voting-Information.