Joe Scroggins is one of more than 1,500 people who signed petitions to reduce the power of the Concord School Board and to rebuild the middle school in the South End where he lives with his family.

After months of conversations with neighbors who were similarly upset with the school board’s vote to move the middle school to East Concord, he wanted to do more.

“I can’t complain about the board if I’m not willing to do something about it,” said Scroggins, who has two children in the school district. As of Friday, he is one of three people running for at-large positions on the Concord School Board because of how its current members have handled the middle school project. The filing period closes at the end of the day on Monday.

Not everyone who wants the middle school to stay in the South End supports efforts to reduce the school board’s power over the issue. But Scroggins does, and he said he supported reductions to the board’s power that go beyond what is proposed in charter amendments on the ballot this year.

“When it comes to impacting the tax base, both now and in the future, it’s definitely important to me that there is a release of authority from the board back into the community in some form or another,” he said.

Scroggins also pushed for smaller increases to the budget by prioritizing academics and curriculum development over other investments, though he didn’t name specific cuts he’d make.

“Having a community that cares for all people, that’s absolutely important to me. But I think that sometimes our approach, to say we have to spend money to solve those issues, is not always the right approach,” he said. “Primarily my focus would be on academics and on strong programs. Then we have to ask tough questions about what remains, and whether spending money on those is the right solution, or if there are alternative approaches to kind of support.”

Scroggins feels his experience in business as a regional director for Service Master equips him to navigate the budget process.

“That’s forced me to think through those tough questions and come up with alternative solutions that don’t cost money,” he said. He sees his ability to hold people accountable, ask tough questions and be frugal as the key skills he would bring to the board.

Two of the three incumbents up for re-election, Board President Pamela Walsh and longtime member Barb Higgins, have said they intend to run again but have not yet filed. The candidates with the top three vote totals in the city-wide election will win seats on the board.

Look for coverage of any last-minute filers and the third newcomer who has announced a run, East Concord resident Sarah Sadowski, next week.

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com