DIXFIELD — Directors of the Western Foothills
School District voted unanimously to allow two educational field trips in the spring.

 
Mountain
Valley High School Principal Matt Gilbert made the case for a
school-wide trip to the nation's capital, Superintendent Tom Ward said. Any student at the Rumford
school who is in academic good standing will be allowed to go on the
long weekend trip to Washington, D.C.

A bus will be chartered for
the students and their chaperons. The cost for each student will be $175.
Fund-raising efforts are about to begin.

Also, Dirigo Middle School Principal Celena
Ranger got approval to take nearly 80 eighth-graders to Quebec City over a long weekend in the
spring. Cost for that trip will be $400 per child. With fundraising,
that figure is expected to drop to about $150. Students whose
families cannot afford the cost will be dealt with on an individual
basis, Ward said.

In other business, the board granted a leave of
absence for the remainder of the school year at half pay to Dirigo
Elementary School second-grade teacher Laurie Xanthos. The leave is expected to begin
immediately. Ward said a long-term substitute teacher had been hired.

The board will not hold a regular
meeting on the second Monday of October because of plans to meet with
and share supper with the Region 11 School of Applied Technology
board in Paris on Oct. 8. Students from the Buckfield region of Regional School Unit
10 (Western Foothills) attend vocational classes at Region 11.

eadams@sunjournal.com