A vote to rotate the site of one meeting each month was shot down.
RUMFORD – SAD 43 board meetings will stay put for now.
In a close weighted vote at Monday’s meeting, board members turned down a proposal to rotate one of the twice-monthly meetings to one of the other four schools. The vote was 462-446. Board member Mike Papsadora was absent.
Meetings have been held in the library of Mountain Valley High School for many years. Superintendent Jim Hodgkin said at least one board member had requested that the meeting venue change. He had proposed keeping one at MVHS and moving the second of each month to the middle school or one of the three elementary schools.
Betty Barrett, a Mexico representative, said she had wanted rotating meetings for years.
“Parents might feel more comfortable and that would give board members a chance to see the other schools. It’s only fair,” she said just before making a motion to rotate meetings and ask the superintendent to set up a schedule.
But Peter Zanoni of Mexico questioned whether sufficient space would be available for visitors at the other schools. He also was concerned that people wouldn’t know where the regularly scheduled, first and third Monday meetings would be held. He also wondered whether the logistics could be worked out for moving board name plates and the speaker system to the meeting place.
Board Chairman Arthur Boivin said annual open houses give board members and parents a chance to see the other schools. In the final vote, Barrett, Amy Bernard, Diane Paterson, Mark Touchette, Chris Dickson and Jarrod Dumas voted to rotate meetings. Zanoni, Boivin, Linda Westleigh, Mary Hickey, Anne Simmons-Edmunds and Tracey Higley voted against the change.
In other matters, long-term substitute Victoria Ojeda was appointed as full-time high school Spanish teacher, Peggy Masalsky as Rumford Elementary School bus driver/custodian, Gena Cloutier as a cook at the high school, and Doug Barber as coach for the Science Olympiad.
Hodgkin set a special workshop for Nov. 18 for board members to learn about union negotiations. All five of the district’s bargaining units are scheduled to negotiate for new contracts during the school year.
Following the public session of the meeting, the board entered into a closed-session to discuss negotiations for nutrition services, secretaries, educational technicians and teachers.
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