The $1,000 in charges came as a part of the Gilead Fire Department’s policy.
OXFORD – SAD 17 paid the Gilead Fire Department $1,000 for helping to bring a group of students out of the woods during a January snowstorm.
In a letter given to board members for the Monday night meeting, Superintendent Mark Eastman questioned parts of the statement Gilead Fire Chief Kenneth L. Cole made in a letter accompanying the original bill.
He also praised the Maine Warden Service for bringing the students out early.
Eastman referred to the Wilderness Leadership Evans Notch trip, where eight students and two adults had to spend an extra night camping in a blizzard.
The group had to change its route and all cell phones didn’t work. The group was due out on Dec. 7 and finally came out of the forested area Dec. 8.
Eastman was unable to be at the board meeting as he is home recovering from a hip replacement operation performed Feb. 17.
In his letter he said he took exception to the fire chief’s contention that the group was not prepared for the trip and it was poorly planned.
Eastman said the group checked the weather forecasts on Friday morning before starting the trip and then, the weather forecast was favorable.
“They also had a weather radio and a cell phone,” Eastman wrote. “They had plenty of food and equipment. They would have made it out on their own without your assistance.
“Although we appreciate the town’s participation, it was the skill of the Maine Warden Service that brought the students out early,” Eastman wrote.
Board Chairman Dale Piirainen of West Paris said the rationale applied in paying for the bill was that the charges came as a part of that fire department’s policy. He said paying was not an admission of negligence, irresponsibility or liability on the district’s part.
In other business, Curriculum Director Kathryn Elkins told the board that she, with the help of four teachers, submitted a $45,000 grant to the Maine Match & Science Alliance to help with staff development.
Paris Building Committee member John Jenness told the board that the committee disagreed with a Department of Education’s view that roofs for the new building should be flat and it should be stacked.
“They consider it more economical to stack a building,” Jenness said. “We don’t think it’s good for education.”
Jenness said the district must prove its point to the DOE.
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