MEXICO – In her five years as director of the local vocational school, the student population has doubled, the member districts work together more cooperatively, and perhaps most important, all programs are offered under one roof.

But Region 9 Director Deborah Guimont’s decision to leave boiled down to miles – 18 versus 83.

Eighty-three is the number of miles she had to drive each day from her home at Old Orchard Beach to the local school. Her new position, as director of the Sanford Vocational Center, is only 18 miles from her dooryard. She had looked into buying a second home in the River Valley that she and her husband could commute from. But then he was transferred from Augusta to Scarborough, so she decided to apply for the Sanford position.

She said it is very hard to leave.

“The miles is the total reason for leaving. I feel really sad about it. I want to keep watching Region 9 grow,” she said Tuesday afternoon as she did some last-minute work in her almost bare second-floor office.

When she began her duties soon after the 1999-2000 school year started, some of the staff and several of the vocational programs had just moved into the building from five or six sites scattered throughout the River Valley.

Offering all the region’s vocational programs under one roof had been a long-held dream of the board, students and instructors.

During her first year, the remainder of the programs moved into the building, and a few months later, the adult education program relocated to the same site.

And during all this time, the building was under renovation. Many new classrooms were built, the bumpy parking lot paved, and last year, the building was finally purchased.

“I feel really good about all the things that have happened. Sometimes, I think we need to remember where we were and remember the situation,” she said.

Guimont has already begun her duties at Sanford. But she is also helping with the transition at the Mexico school. She will work one day a week at least until the beginning of the school year to help in the transition to either an interim or permanent new director.

Many projects started by Guimont will continue. The staff has been working diligently toward getting vocational school accreditation, which would be a first for the school. There’s also the outstanding applications for low-interest loans that may eventually add an elevator and perhaps several more classrooms.

Besides all the physical changes, she has seen a huge emphasis on the use of technology in all the programs, from a new wood-harvesting simulator to the use of metal trades software.

For the future, she believes secondary vocational schools and adult education programs may fill some of the vocational education gaps that may result in the change from post-secondary vocational schools to community colleges.

“People still want to learn vocational skills. We are natural to offer this,” she said.

Whether Region 9 adds more programs to its current offerings will depend upon the needs and support of the community, she said. Right now, about 180 students from three school districts and several unaffiliated towns receive training in forestry, metal trades, nursing, building trades, hospitality, computer networking and repair, truck driving and co-operative and diversified occupations. The Sanford school trains about 400 students.