East Lyme — Candidates for the Board of Education list the consolidation of the elementary schools and the budget process among the top issues that will face board members.

Democrats Bill Derry, Jill Carini and Barbara Senges, and Republicans Jaime Barr Shelburn, Timothy Hagen and Eric Bauman are running in the Nov. 3 election for five available seats on the 10-member school board. Carini, Senges, Barr Shelburn and Hagen are incumbents.

The school board is pursuing a plan to renovate Niantic Center School, rebuild Flanders Elementary School, and give Lillie B. Haynes School to the town. The proposal will likely go to referendum in 2016.

Barr Shelburn, a two-term incumbent and assistant probate clerk, named the schools' renovation project, as well as unfunded mandates and declining enrollment, as top issues facing the district.

She said the board will need to stand behind the consolidation and renovation of the schools, a project which she said is the responsible thing to do for the town's children and necessary, particularly in light of declining enrollment.

"We need to all work together as a community to do the best for each other," she said.

Bauman, a senior director of finance at Pfizer, said it will be important for the board to follow a good process during the school project that includes listening to residents at town forums and being fiscally responsible and prioritizing what investments should or shouldn't be made for the buildings.

He also he would like to have conversations about developing global practices to continue to raise the level of education in the highly ranked district.

"For me, the important part is to have these discussions," he said.

Carini, a four-year incumbent and a mortgage loan officer by profession, said now that the board has decided to pursue the consolidation of the town's elementary schools, the decision next rests with the town. 

"Our role is communication and being open to whoever wants to talk about it," she said.

She also said the budget process is an important issue, and the school system will need to work on the transition from "being a budget consumer" to "being revenue centers."  

Derry, a Lyme-Old Lyme technology education teacher, said he has attended meetings over the past years in which there has been some confusion or frustration among residents over the school project. While he said he was originally in favor of keeping three schools, he said the district, like neighboring towns, faces declining enrollment. He said the board's plan will also minimize disruption to students during construction.  

"My role if I get elected is to try to make sure everyone in the community at least understands that plan and the rationale behind it," he said.

He said transparency in the budget process is a priority.

Hagen, the board's chairman and a member since 2003, said the board has methodically gone through a process to determine the best solution for the town's elementary schools.

The next step, he said, will be "making sure the community has an opportunity to ask all the questions and we have an opportunity to provide all the necessary information to the voters."

He said the board will also be tasked with working with the new superintendent to craft a five-year strategic plan for the district.

Senges, an incumbent who joined the board in January 2014, said the budget process is an issue for the district, particularly in an environment in which the economy hasn't fully rebounded, more people are on fixed income, and there are unfunded state mandates. She also said the district faces the upcoming schools' project and negotiations with teachers, whose starting salaries she said are less competitive than other districts.

She said she has a lot of faith in the district's new superintendent to craft a budget, a process which begins with the teachers and principals and then proceeds to the superintendent.

"It's our job to be vigilant in terms of overseeing the budget process, but I think we have to have trust in the people we've hired to make these decisions," she said.

k.drelich@theday.com

Twitter: @KimberlyDrelich