ORONO — A four-way race is shaping up for a three-year school committee seat. Voters will fill the post now held by Suzanne Gordon in town elections on Tuesday.

All of this year’s committee hopefuls are seeking their first elective post.

“My strength as a candidate is my commitment to the Orono school system,” said Kathy Halstead, a founder and current officer of the elementary Parent-Teacher Association and a school volunteer for six years.

She said that over the past three years, she has attended school committee and Town Council meetings to advocate for local education.

Halstead’s main goal is to ensure Orono provides the curriculum and environment students need for academic excellence.

Diane Erb has served as a substitute teacher in Orono, where she also heads a parent group that raises funds for student musicians.

Erb taught junior high school English and grade three in New Hampshire schools. She cited a need for improving school facilities, the staff evaluation process and curriculum at all grade levels as among her main concerns.

The top priority, she said, is Orono’s aging schools. “The physical plant needs immediate attention” for health, safety and educational reasons, she added.

A University of Maine assistant education professor involved at the state, national and international levels, Sydney Thomas said he feels that local students’ greatest needs are such basics as up-to-date textbooks and facilities.

“I see myself in the role of policy-making, not micromanaging,” Thomas added.

Committee members should instead focus on garnering public support for school initiatives, and keeping people abreast of learning issues.

Dorothy Plummer has taught at elementary schools in many New England states, New York and Indiana, most recently at Bowdoin Elementary School. She and her husband moved here four years ago.

Plummer hopes to lend her 39 years of teaching experience to the Orono school system. “Education, for me, has been a way of life. I would very much like to see people give education the respect it deserves,” she said.

A major reason she hopes to serve on the committee is to help “sell” to the community a facility improvement program the town is considering. Plummer also is concerned with the impacts state and national education standards will have on Orono, which will need to decide how local standards will be set, met and funded.