RUMFORD – The SAD 43 board learned of tentative plans Monday night for an addition to the high school to house fitness equipment for students and the public.

An ad hoc committee of board members, administrators, physical education teachers and members of the community may be established at the board’s Jan. 3 meeting to explore the details of the project.

Bruce Lindberg, principal of Mountain Valley High School, said one plan suggests construction of a 30- by 80-foot addition on the Route 120 end of the building. A small jogging ring inside the building may be included. Lindberg said the site would be where a swimming pool would have been built when the school was constructed more than 30 years ago.

SADs 43 and 21 received about $360,000 in fitness equipment and other wellness-related materials from a three-year federal grant. SAD 43’s equipment is now housed and used near the visitors’ locker room and the wrestling area.

Lindberg estimated the cost at about $150,000, plus in-kind and volunteer work. None of the money would come from the district’s operating budget, he said.

Board member Betty Barrett doubted if such a facility, which would also be open to the general public when school isn’t in session, would cost the district nothing.

“When the equipment goes bad, will it go into the budget?” she asked.

Other unknowns – including liability issues, how the money would be raised, and how the fitness building would be funded in the future – will also be addressed.

“These are the questions an ad hoc committee would answer,” Superintendent Jim Hodgkin said.

Building an addition or any other special project should be studied, he said.

“We need to have a systematic way to look into ideas and having an ad hoc committee is a way,” he said.

Lindberg estimated that the project – from planning and fund-raising, to opening – could take three to five years.

In other matters, the resignation of special services director Paige Coville was accepted. She has served the district for nearly six years. Assistant special services director Diane Taylor-Moore will serve as interim director through the end of the school year, when the position will be advertised.

Catherine Charles of Strong was hired as the high school French teacher. She replaces Maureen Goudreau, who leaves at the end of the year for a non-teaching position in Farmington.