WEST GARDINER — A write-in candidate won a spot on the Gardiner-area school board in Saturday’s town election.

Janelle McKinnon won a seat on the MSAD 11 school board representing West Gardiner Saturday. Janelle McKinnon

Janelle McKinnon narrowly beat incumbent Matthew Lillibridge with 304 write-in votes. Lillibridge received 280 votes and Joe Boyd received 147 votes. Kate Merrill was also on the ballot but decided to drop out at the end of March. Even so, she received 80 votes.

The race for the West Gardiner seat drew attention in the community as the Maine School Administrative District 11 board of directors has taken on issues that have become contentious over the year, specifically policies regarding transgender youth and the proposed school-based health center.

McKinnon joined the race two weeks ago as a write-in candidate after attending the school board candidate panel that the town hosted on March 27.

“I went to the panel and found out Kate (Merrill) was stepping down, which left Joe and Matthew. Being there and hearing both sides, I went home a bit worried for what could come if either side won,” McKinnon said. “So, I told my husband, ‘I’m running for school board.’ He was like, ‘What?’ but I told him, ‘I don’t feel comfortable voting for either of the two remaining candidates on the ballot, and I spoke with a lot of people who felt the same way. So, I thought: ‘I’m going to do this.'”

McKinnon, who grew up in Jefferson, has lived in West Gardiner since 2015. Her parents and grandparents attended Gardiner schools, and she has two children at Helen A. Thompson School. She works full-time as a dental hygienist in the Augusta area.

To prepare in the short two weeks she had between the forum and the election, McKinnon made up cards and signs to hand out and went to the transfer station any time she could to try to meet with as many people as she could. Friends and family shared a Facebook post she wrote. And she attended Thursday’s school board meeting, introducing herself during the public comment period.

McKinnon said she has a back-to-basics approach: she wants the school board to focus on policy for educating students on how to read and write, creating a fiscally responsible budget and helping to curb student behavior. She said she also believes in transparency between the schools and parents, specifically regarding students who identify as transgender, which might look like a phone conversation between parents and the teachers or administrators.

She pointed to a policy the school board voted on in September that gives transgender or gender nonconforming students rights within the school district, such as using the bathroom of the gender they closely identify with, and includes a Gender Support Plan with guidance for staff on how to address the student’s gender in school and at home.

“I think parents have the right to know what’s going on with their child anytime they are in the school doors,” she said. “Just to make them aware of what’s going on so they can support their child at home. If a child is going through something like that, it’s important those at home know about it. It’s a big thing to go through and they shouldn’t have to go through it alone.”

Lillibridge served on the board since the 2018-19 school year. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Leading up to the election, several West Gardiner residents reported receiving text messages that they did not sign up for regarding the school board race.

The text messages targeted Lillibridge, referring to messages he sent to other school board members that were discovered as the result of a Freedom of Access Act request. Courage is a Habit, a right-leaning Indiana nonprofit that has shown interest in MSAD 11’s policies, highlighted a message Lillibridge sent to fellow board members that stated if Alvin Liu, director of Courage is a Habit shows up to Lillibridge’s house, Lilibridge would answer with an “AR-15 and a Doberman.”

Similar messages about Lillibridge were sent about a month before from the group Parents Rights in Education, another right-leaning nonprofit that has taken an interest in the Gardiner-area school district and its policies.

Brendan Galvin, director of insights from Open Secrets, which tracks money in politics, said political groups and others can buy access to immense databases with very detailed profiles of voters that allows them to micro-target their messaging.

“Personal information collected by political committees is a valuable commodity in the political world and they often sell or rent access to their donor lists, which could include phone numbers. This information can also be linked up with information purchased from data brokers to expand donor profiles or fill in gaps,” Galvin said.