MINOT – Teachers, the School Committee and Community Club members honored Minot Consolidated School Principal Don Bilodeau Tuesday night with good words, warm applause and a commemorative plaque celebrating his nine years of service.

While Bilodeau’s time in office was marked by the number and range of grants he secured for the school and for the modernization and expansion of the curriculum, Community Club co-chair Kristin Kannegieser summed up the community’s sentiment by saying “thank you for continual support and absolute commitment.”

Reporting on the process to replace Bilodeau, Superintendent Nina Schlikin said that while the application deadline is July 16, she has already received applications from 14 candidates.

Schlikin and the School Committee worked out the composition of the search committee, whose 10 members will include Schlikin, five members of the School Committee, teachers Jennifer French and Janice Rawson, principal’s secretary Janet Wilkinson, and a yet-to-be-chosen representative from the Community Club.

The search committee will hold its first meeting on July 6.

Kannegieser and Community Club member Becky Woodford presented final plans for new playground equipment and received School Committee permission to install it on 3,600 square feet just beyond the existing playground.

Woodford said she expects the equipment to be delivered by the end of July and that, using volunteer labor, the Community Club intends to install it in August.

The Community Club has raised $26,000 over the past few years, enough to purchase the equipment, and hopes to raise another $3,200 for safety surface materials during the summer.

The School Committee agreed to take responsibility for removal of the old playground equipment.

School Committee Chairman Colleen Quint announced that bids for the construction of a new entryway to the school, one that will afford greater security than the present arrangement, were higher than expected. Quint said it was unclear whether the project will be undertaken this summer.

Plans to remove stumps and other debris left over from last year’s logging operation near the school are expected to take a leap forward this weekend.

Quint said that after consultation with Selectman Eda Tripp, arrangements have been made to use the town’s backhoe to begin digging up the stumps. She noted that a place to dispose of the stumps on the property has been identified.

The hot lunch report indicated the program’s money woes continue. Schlikin said the $12,000 raised at March town meeting to support the lunch program has kept it solvent, but she estimated that by the time school opens in September, it will have been drawn down to about $4,000.

In other business, the School Committee approved hiring Mary Beth Koletsky as a social worker, Scott Stevens as a French teacher and laptop coordinator, and Christopher Willer as a physical education teacher.

Karen Whalen was named as a School Committee’s representative to the Poland Regional High School committee, and Larry Bates and Chris Woodford were named to represent the committee on the town’s newly formed recreation committee.