BB:   SCHOOL COMMITTEE LEGAL STATUS

Recognizing that “a general diffusion of the advantages of education [is] essential to the preservation of rights and liberties of the people,” the Constitution of the State of Maine declares that the Legislature has the duty to require communities to provide for the support and maintenance of public schools in order to further this objective.  Maine law establishes a State Department of Education to supervise a coordinated system of public education, a Commissioner to enforce regulatory requirements and to provide technical assistance and educational leadership, and a State Board of Education to act as a body with certain policymaking, administrative and advisory functions, but places the responsibility for control and management of public schools with locally elected School Committees, School Boards or Boards of Directors.  Thus, the Kittery School Committee derives its legal authority from the State’s Constitution, state statutes, regulations of the State Board of Education, and the Charter of the Town of Kittery, as well as Federal laws and regulations.

By custom and tradition, local School Committees have responsibilities to the local citizenry they serve and which elect them to office.  Recognizing this parallel concept of authority and responsibility, the School Committee becomes a policy-making body for the school district serving within the framework provided by law and responding to the will of the local citizenry.

There shall be seven members on the Kittery School Committee.  Each member term is three years.  A student representative serves, but their vote is for record purposes only.

Each year as a part of the School Committee’s reorganization procedure, the School Committee will elect one of its members to serve as Chair.  The Chair shall be the presiding officer at all School Committee meetings.

The School Committee shall elect from among its members a Vice-Chair who will serve as presiding officer and assume the rights and responsibilities of the Chair in his or her absence.

Adopted:               March 15, 2011

Legal Reference:    20-A MRSA §§ 1001, 1251 et seq.

                              Charter of the Town of Kittery §§ 4.01, 4.02, 4.04

Cross Reference:    BDB – School Committee Officers