Laura Marlena Otis (Bangor School Department, At-large, Maine, candidate 2025)

Laura Marlena Otis

Nonpartisan

Candidate, Bangor School Department, At-large

Elections and appointments

Next election

November 4, 2025

Education

Bachelor's

Loyola Marymount University, 2007

Contact

Campaign Facebook

Laura Marlena Otis is running for election to the Bangor School Department, At-large in Maine. Otis is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025.^[source]

Otis completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Laura Marlena Otis provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on September 22, 2025:

• Bachelor's: Loyola Marymount University, 2007
• Incumbent officeholder: No
• Campaign Facebook

Elections

General election

The general election will occur on November 4, 2025.

General election for Bangor School Department, At-large (2 seats)

Frank Joseph Casella, Mallory Cole Cook, Laura Marlena Otis, and Benjamin J. Speed are running in the general election for Bangor School Department, At-large on November 4, 2025.

		Candidate
		Frank Joseph Casella (Nonpartisan)
		Mallory Cole Cook (Nonpartisan)
		Laura Marlena Otis (Nonpartisan)
		Benjamin J. Speed (Nonpartisan)

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	Incumbency information for this election was not available.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

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Campaign themes

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Laura Marlena Otis completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Otis' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Mom of 3 Bangor School Department students; active community volunteer with Fruit Street PTO, Bangor Beautiful, and Parks and Recreation; School Garden program creator and manager at Fruit Street School and founding member of Bangor School Garden Network; Master Gardener, artist, and graduate of Loyola Marymount University's multimedia art and pre-med programs.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Get kids back in nature at every opportunity. These opportunities strengthen their life skills, self-reliance and self-confidence, support real-world application teaching models, and boost children's esteem and mental health resilience.
• Promote alternative learning styles and environments. Dynamic learning keeps kids interested and is a means to disrupt truancy patterns for neurodivergent students, aligned with Universal Design for Learning framework, and opens collaboration with communities which allows kids to discover and explore their passions and talents.
• Incorporate local food systems into school cafeterias: Creating partnerships with local producers translates to investment and pride in the community, and more local investment and pride makes for a stronger, thriving community which will aid in recruitment.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

A) Mental Health: provide robust mental health support for students, teachers, and staff

B) Housing Crisis: work with city council on managing housing insecurity for at-risk/vulnerable youth and their families
C) Food Sovereignty: remove barriers for establishing direct farm-to-school supply chains, support and expand school garden programming, offer skill development and mentorship on home-gardening
D) Communication: develop clear exchanges of information and resources between schools and student families, between community services and those who need them

E) Public Education: remove political and religious agendas from public education curriculum development to ensure students have the space and information to form their own opinions

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Wisdom and insight from experience tempered with an openness and acknowledgment of areas for growth, respect for research and fact-based data, equity in all things, compassion and understanding before punitive reaction, attention to root causes over social and cultural symptoms, fiscal responsibility paired with creative and innovative problem solving for high-yield and efficient spending

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

A School Board member must endeavor to uplift, empower, and motivate the entire spectrum of student. Success is collective, not individual. A School Board member must defend public education from the dictates of politics and religion to ensure a full, comprehensive, research-backed, fact-based curriculum. Only with a well-rounded, complete reference of knowledge, will students be prepared to engage civilly and articulately with the world at large, with opinions entirely of their own. Equity and opportunity for all looks like adaptive and accommodating learning modules such as the Universal Design Model, wherein all types of learners have ready access to lessons in formats that work for them.

What is the primary job of a school board member in your view?

Policy making and revising is the core job of a school board. School board members formation of such policies come from listening to, representing, and advocating students, teachers, staff and their families regarding challenges and barriers. The school board develops and ensures collaborative networks with city councils and community services and partnerships to this end because it takes a village to raise a child and the whole city to ensure the success of its future leaders.

Who are your constituents?

I view my constituents as a member of the school board as Bangor at large, especially the students, teachers, and staff directly tied to the Bangor School Department. The whole community is interconnected whether they attend Bangor public schools or not, but my primary focus is on those enrolled in or employed by the Bangor School Department.

How would you support the diverse needs of your district’s students, faculty, staff, and community?

Like everyone, I have preconceptions and biases, some of which I am assuredly unaware. Knowing and acknowledging this from the start keeps my ears and eyes open for new voices and perspectives. I love being challenged. If my philosophies cannot stand up to a healthy debate, I welcome the re-education. Raised to be a skeptic and to always question instead of blindly follow, I am careful in my discernment but equally passionate and full-throated in my advocacy.

Growing up in Los Angeles and having lived across the United States in rural and urban communities, I have met an ever-expanding spectrum of people. Moving to Maine has felt like coming home, though, and I am eager to share my experiences and openness to the weird and wonderfully colorful parts of society. One of the exciting things about Bangor is that it is big enough to house a rich cultural exchange yet small enough for changes and impacts to resonate statewide if not nationwide. There’s so much Bangor has accomplished and so much to strive for. I am listening and taking notes.

What is an accomplishment that you are proud of?

I have an unquenchable drive for learning, skill building, and new experiences.

I have been a regular community volunteer since 5th grade and has become a part of my identity. In college I was a member of the Ignatians Service Organization and ArtSmart educator. I have volunteered with innovative youth mentorship programs Young Peacemakers and Young Storytellers as well as homeless and low-income outreach organizations like Los Angeles's Midnight Mission, Catholic Worker, and Venice Family Clinic.

During the pandemic, my family moved to a 20-acre farm where I taught myself farming and animal husbandry. We had chickens, turkeys, pigs, goats, an orchard, hay fields, and a vegetable patch.

In Bangor I enrolled in art and basketweaving classes and currently take Hip-Hip dance classes at the Thomas School of Dance. I joined the PTO through which I designed and installed a pollinator garden at my sons' elementary school. Because I don't do half-measures, I went on to develop and begin an after-school Garden Club and formed the Bangor School Garden Network to support and share resources with other school garden volunteers in the district. When my middle son was excited but nervous about starting soccer, I volunteered to be his Parks and Recreation soccer coach. Just this Fall I had the honor of helping paint the latest Bangor Beautiful mural on State Street and Broadway and help with their school mural projects.

I am proud of what I have accomplished but there is still so much to learn and explore. See you out there!

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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