BUCKFIELD – The SAD 39 school board unanimously approved a proposal Wednesday that allows the Oxford Hills school district to provide adult education.

SAD 39 Superintendent William Shuttleworth said it was a good situation for both districts.

Prior to the meeting, the Oxford Hills SAD 17 Superintendent Mark Eastman said SAD 39 will be saving some money under the agreement and his district will be making some.

According to the SAD 39 draft budget figures, the district’s estimated expense of $47,525 for adult education in 2003-04 was reduced to $38,065 under the collaboration agreement.

The amount of money SAD 17 would earn under the pact was not available.

The biggest saving came from not rehiring an adult education coordinator at SAD 39 with the retirement of Janet Brown.

The collaboration will be directed by Judith Green, SAD 17 Adult Education director. On-site coordination at Buckfield High School will be led by Cheryl Coffman.

It is the plan that current part-time instructors at the high school will continue and additional instructors will be added as new courses are requested.

Payroll, materials ordering and other expenditures will be handled by SAD 17 Adult Education.

It will also supervise and administer: program and curriculum development, budget development, revenues and expenditures, hiring and supervision of staff and GED testing.

Before the vote, school board member Terry Hayes of Buckfield asked the board would measure the success of the program.

“How will we know if this works?” Hayes asked. “If we save money? Build numbers? Maintain numbers?”

Shuttleworth told her some money would be saved and that he hoped for greater participation in the program.

“I hope to show a number of areas where there is growth and stability,” he said.

In other business, the board:

• Accepted a building committee recommendation that Cowette’s Construction of Bath be awarded the roof-shingling job at the high school for a bid of $82,154, the lowest of three bids tendered. The total project cost is estimated to be $115,004 including price of shingles, bond council, legal fees and the engineering study.

• Approved the nomination of current board member Jerry Wiley as the community representative.

• Learned that the Maine Educational Assessment tests were returned to the school from the testing last winter of grades 4, 8 and 11. Shuttleworth said results of the testing would be released soon.

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