Two Seek School Board Seat
By M. D. Drysdale

The only contest on the Town Meeting ballot this year is for the two-year seat on the Randolph Elementary School Board.

Both candidates, Wally Caswell and Justin Johnson, have not previously run for local office, and both have children in the elementary school.

Oddly enough, both also boast some pretty exotic foreign roots. Johnson is a native Australian who married a Randolph wife, and Caswell notes that he was originally from Lincoln, Mass. and Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific Ocean. He also came to Randolph through matrimony.

Wally Caswell

Caswell is a graduate of New England College in Henniker, N.H. and has his own business, Northeast Marketing Partners, in which he develops and implements marketing strategies for small businesses. Previously, he managed a group of four radio stations in Lebanon, N.H.

He's married to Brenda (Hutchinson) Caswell, whose family has been in Randolph several generations. The couple has three children—a high school senior, a fifth grader and a third grader.

Caswell has coached Little League and soccer throughout the years. He is a member of Bethany Church, and the Randolph Rotary Club, for whom he has created a website.

"I'm running for a couple of pretty simple reasons," Caswell wrote in an email to The Herald. "First, it's fundamentally one of the really good things a person can do when getting involved in his or her town. The health of a town starts at its foundation which is its youth and the strength of its educational system. If I can help and bring some vision to the task, then I would be pleased to do so.

"Secondly, as a small business owner I wasn't necessarily looking to join a board of any sort. Three kids, a business and other commitments keep me on my toes. But a member of the current board called me and asked if I'd be interested, and I was quite honored to be considered someone who has something to offer.

"I can't say I have a specific agenda other than making sure we provide the best possible education for our children. How that specifically plays out I'm not sure. My main goal is to continue the good work of the current board and support the elementary school because I think they do an excellent job."

Justin Johnson

Johnson met his wife, the former Gus Howe, when she was an exchange student in Australia. The couple has lived in Randolph on and off since 1995 and they have two children in the elementary school.

In the mid 1990s, he spent four years as an agricultural marketing specialist for the Vermont Agency of Agriculture and recently was appointed deputy commissioner of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation.

Previous to relocating to Randolph, he and his family spent a few years in Australia where Johnson worked as chief of staff for a member of Parliament and as a senior executive in local government.

After returning to the US, he first worked for the Montpelier-based Institute for Sustainable Communities, implementing civil society and community development projects in Russia, Ukraine, and Macedonia on behalf of the United States Agency for International Development.

His volunteer work has included three years as president of the White River Partnership and as a Washington County Farm Bureau board member for four years, including one year as president.

Johnson has a journalism degree from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia and an associate's degree in auto mechanics ("I like playing with cars," he explains).

He stated his reason for running as follows:

"I am primarily interested in the quality of education available to my two children and their peers as students at the Randolph Elementary School.

"Vermont has one of the best public school systems in the country, which is a good thing, because a solid education is key for our kids and their future opportunities.

"As a taxpayer I'm interested in seeing our tax dollars well spent. The Randolph school board has done an excellent job in the past few years containing costs and keeping school expenses under control. However, school funding is confusing and there is a need to better link what we spend to what we pay to further increase efficiency in education funding.

"I'd like to bring my skills and experiences working in public administration and communication to the school board and join this hard-working team.

I'm also running because I feel it is important to step up and be involved in our community.

"The level of local control of civic affairs that we enjoy in Vermont is truly remarkable, but we should never take it for granted. I want to do my part to ensure that local involvement continues to be the way we do things in Vermont."