On June 10, Waldoboro will vote for one of two candidates to serve on the Regional School Unit 40 school board. RSU 40 comprises K-12 public schools Friendship, Union, Waldoboro, Warren and Washington.

PenBayPilot.com has circulated questions to both school board candidates, Danny Jackson and Sonja Sleeper. Here, Sonja Sleeper responds.

Please provide a short biography.

I am the daughter of a fifth generation Mainer and an immigrant mother.  He was an Air Force officer, pilot and hero.  My family lived all over the U.S. and abroad.  I have a degree in Fine Arts from Rutgers University-Mason Gross School of the Arts.  Not an easy degree to find work with and having loans to pay, I ended up in administration.  I have also worked as a waitress, aluminum salesman, and managed an internship program.  

I moved to South Thomaston in 2012.  In 2018, I was looking to purchase an affordable home, and I found a fixer upper in Waldoboro.  While in South Thomaston I served on the planning board and the budget committee.  In Waldoboro, I currently serve on the Economic Development Committee.  

I prefer to address the issue of education rather than contentious social issues.  Wouldn’t you agree there is too much of that today?  And perhaps a part of the problem with our schools.

What do you hope to accomplish as a public pre-K–12 school board member for your town? 

What I hope to achieve while on the school board is better performance and lower costs. For too long, costs have been increasing while grades are dropping.  We have been given many reasons for this, and new programs have been introduced but performance has not improved.  Why not try something different?  We could do no worse at this point.  

I have been researching other school systems and learning models such as cognitive constructivism.  Yes, I know. I really think we need to get back to basics reading, writing, and arithmetic. Our main goal should be ensuring that our children can at least read, write and add.  We should allow high school students a choice between a technical education or an academic path.  This is done in England.  We need to make different decisions and explore more options than just doing what the current system recommends.  

Which committees would you seek to join and why? 

There are two, learning, and budget.  For learning how best to improve performance.  The budget-reducing costs to residents.  I think with the help of other government bodies we can find a way to separate school costs from property taxes, alleviating the strain on town budgets and people with fixed incomes. Reducing operating costs is a little trickier.  I do not know the details of how the money is spent.  I am not worried though as I have plenty of experience and I am a quick learner and good at research.  As the administrative manager of a small business, I saved my employer $70,000 a year in expenses.

This would be my first time being elected to a school board.  I have spoken up at public meetings and I have been a substitute teacher.  I am currently studying established policies and procedures of the schools and board in preparation to serve.  I will be one voice out of 16.  I would be there to speak for the residents of Waldoboro, parents, and schoolchildren.  

Is there anything else you’d like to address?

I want to see more people involved in local government because it is where you can have a say in what happens with your school and with your town.