The MSAD 75 School Board of Directors (“Board”) has 14 members elected by the four individual towns that make up our district. The membership is proportional to the population of the towns: Topsham has 6 representatives, Harpswell has 4 representatives, and Bowdoin and Bowdoinham have 2 representatives each.
All of the Board's actions are taken in an effort to advance the MSAD 75 Mission: to develop confident, life-long, and fluent learners, and to work together to ensure a community of critical thinkers and creative contributors to our society. Among the most important of the Board’s duties are: adoption of policies; management of school property; selection of Superintendents; adopting curricula, and, adopting a budget.
Members of the Board have authority only when acting as a board. It is the Board, and not its individual members, who have legal responsibility to act on behalf of the school system. Consequently, it is only when the Board is duly constituted and in session that it assumes its authority to transact business, and the Board can only conduct business in a duly noticed public meeting.
The authority and duties of the Board are derived from Acts of the Maine Legislature and the district policy. Most of the school laws are contained in Title 20-A of the Maine Revised Statutes. The Board is also subject to other laws relating to public agencies, such as those laws governing the public’s freedom of access to government proceedings and documents, and those laws governing conflicts of interest by public officials.