Educational trips to Quebec City, Washington, D.C. approved

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