BUCKFIELD – In a report to the SAD 39 board Wednesday, elementary Principal Kay Slusser and Superintendent William Shuttleworth praised the Elementary After School Program that has been very successful over the past few years.

According to Shuttleworth, the program is designed to give elementary students special events from 2:30 to 6 p.m. each day, which provide one-on-one assistance with homework and special needs. It also is designed to provide a variety of fun activities such as dancing, puppet-making, and other pastimes to relieve the pressure of regular school responsibilities. Along with these special features it provides healthy snacks and special computer access to help young students further develop computer skills.

“The program has been funded by a federal 21st Century grant,” said Shuttleworth, “and has been very successful. This is the last year of the grant, however, but we are already looking into possible ways we can fund the program in order to keep it going. It’s too valuable a program to abandon.”

In other business Wednesday, the board approved salary increases for three staff positions. For administrative assistant, the salary will increase from $27,393.60 to $27,941.47; for central office clerk, it will go from $10.50 to $10.71 per hour for 117 days; and for technology aide, from $13.26 per hour to $13.53 per hour for 198 days. Each of the increases add up to a total of 2 percent.

In other business, Chuck Williams was appointed varsity baseball coach at Buckfield High School and John Lowell was given the position of junior varsity baseball coach. Along with those appointments, Darryl Harvey was accepted as volunteer assistant varsity baseball coach and George Reuter was given the nod to serve as middle school softball coach.