Marion voters will have their choice between two educators who are seeking one open seat on the Old Rochester Regional School Committee.

The election, scheduled for May 17, features a race between a 35-year veteran of the Carver public schools, and a member of the Sippican School Committee, also an educator, who has taught for 13 years.

For Linda Harju, a full-day kindergarten teacher in Carver, joining the committee is a way to help the town where she raised her own children.

“I felt inspired to run as a way to give back to my community,” Harju said. Her children attended Sippican School and Old Rochester Regional Junior and High Schools before graduating. Harju has served on the Sippican school council.

On her career, Harju said, “Teaching has been a profession that has rewarded, and sustained me for my entire adult life.”

The key responsibility of the school committee, she said, is to administer educational policy to improve the district. Also important, reviewing the budget to ensure schools are fairly and adequetdly funded is also very important.

Candidate Michelle Ouellette said she is committed to providing a high quality education at each stage of a student’s education.

“The development and growth of children, from elementary school through high school, is very important to me. Not just because of my own children… But for all children in the tri-town community,” she said.

Twelve years ago, Ouellette moved to Marion where she is raising four children, including her 12-year-old daughter, and a seven-year-old son. She has two older children attending college.

In addition to her duties as a mother and full-time teacher, Ouellette has been co-director of Sunday School at Marion’s St. Gabriel’s Church for four years, athletic coach, voting member of the tri-town early education council, and past president of the local chapter for the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

If elected, Ouellette said she would maintain her seat on the Sippican School Committee.

Polls will be open on Friday, May 17, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Benjamin D. Cushing VFW Post on Mill Street.