STRATTON – A rural school district plans to unveil a high-tech link this week that will digitally bring school board members face to face, despite distance.

If all goes well, SAD 58 will hold its first school board meeting via video-conference Tuesday evening linking board members in Stratton to the board meeting at Mt. Abram High School in Salem.

The equipment, paid for by a grant the district received from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, arrived Thursday evening, and is scheduled to be installed on Monday, just in time for the Tuesday meeting, according to district Superintendent Quenten Clark.

“It’s neck and neck with this meeting,” he said on Friday afternoon.

The goal of the Gates money is to build a tighter community around the high school, and Clark is confident the video conferencing system will do just that.

Not only will the technology be tried out at board meetings, but may also be used so Stratton parents don’t have to drive the 30-plus miles from their town to the district’s only high school in Salem to talk with teachers for parent-teacher conferences.

There is also an opportunity for students from Stratton to take classes via the equipment.

“The goal is to bring Stratton closer to the high school because the distance is so great,” Clark explained.

When snowy weather plagues the region, board members from the Stratton area won’t have to make the long and dangerous trek down the mountains and over to Salem where many board meetings are held.

Instead, they’ll just go to the Stratton Elementary School and turn on the television. Clark hopes it will help to simplify things and “beef up” attendance at meetings.

“My board members from Stratton are wonderful people,” he said. “They come through the snow, they come through the moose. Hopefully, this will make it a little easier for them. I see a lot of potential in this.”

The public will also have that same opportunity. In the future, the district plans to do some physical plant improvement to the Stratton school as it is the only elementary school in the district that hasn’t had capital improvements in the past five years.

Instead of driving across the district for meetings regarding improvement plans, Stratton residents will be able to weigh in from a site closer to home.

Clark is excited that such a rural district is charging ahead with 21st century technology.

He hopes SAD 58 will become a role model to other districts.

“It’s the future,” he said of technology. “And part of our mission here is to show the community the future, too. This also expands the public’s access to what we are doing here – their right to know.”

If the video-conferencing system is ready in time for the meeting, Clark says it will be a trial run. The board agenda is unusually light, mostly just field trip requests and updates on the construction of the addition at the Phillips Elementary School.

At the start of the board meeting, Chuck Mahaleris, a staffer for U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in her Lewiston office, will be on hand to hear public comment about the issues and concerns of those living in the area and to inform residents of the resources available to them through the senator’s office.

Area selectmen and public officials have been invited to the meeting and the public is also encouraged to come and speak with Mahaleris.

The board meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 9, at Mt. Abram High School.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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