By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer

POLAND – Held high like a limo driver’s sign, the student’s handwritten plea startled Derek Pierce.

Only minutes earlier, the Poland Regional High School principal announced to students that he’d be leaving when the school year ended. And Pierce knew some kids couldn’t care less.

So the sign – “You Can’t Leave” – caught him off guard.

“He was a kid I’ve known pretty well,” said Pierce, who pinned the note above the desk in his little office. “I dealt with it awkwardly.”

Pierce is learning about goodbyes, though.

Pending the approval of the Portland School Committee, Pierce has been hired to lead that city’s experimental new school, the Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound High School.

“It’s just a temporary name,” said Pierce. “We’ll come up with something catchy that rolls off the tongue.”

Of course, that job hasn’t started, yet. And he’s grieving for this one.

“In my mind, this is the best education job I could have,” Pierce said Wednesday. “I can’t imagine a better job than this one.”

However, Pierce, who lives in Portland, said the commute was too long.

Combined with a principal’s long hours, the 45-minute commute robbed him of time with his wife, Anja Hanson, and their two daughters, Liva, 5, and Siri, who turns 3 on Friday.

“It takes a toll on my family that I need to make right,” Pierce said.

That was the message he gave to his Poland staff, whom he met with after school on Monday. When he told them his reason, “to be a better father and husband,” they gave him a standing ovation.

It was a heartbreaking notice.

“I wept,” Pierce said. “It was difficult for me to tell them what I wanted to say.”

That night, he called members of the School Committee. And on Tuesday, a letter to the community began circulating around the school.

“Our loss is the experimental high school’s gain,” said Ike Levine, chairman of the Poland Regional High School Committee.

“Derek was able to bridge the gaps between the community and the school,” Levine said. “He was the right person at the right time in the right job.”

A good fit

A former English teacher in Gorham, Pierce came to Poland in July 1998, hired as the dean of faculty for two schools that didn’t yet exist.

Along with then-Principal Jackie Soychak and Dean of Students Ray Lafreniere, Pierce helped create the curriculum and structure for the new schools, Bruce M. Whittier Middle School and Poland Regional High School.

In a traditional setting, the work would have been challenging, hiring teachers and staff and gathering kids from Minot, Mechanic Falls and Poland. However, the group also reshaped the way kids were taught and graded. Usually separate classes such as English and history were combined into interdisciplinary studies, and letter grades were substituted with other measures. “I don’t try to be different just to be different,” Pierce said. The aim is to teach better and in a way that leaves no one out, he said.

The school opened in 1999. Three years later, when Soychak left, officials hired Pierce to take her place.

The change came at a time when the school’s methods were being heavily criticized in the community. Meetings were called and attended by hundreds of local people.

Within a few months of Pierce’s naming as principal, the rancor dissipated.

He invited new people into the school, created an advisory council and held potluck suppers.

People saw Pierce as a friendly, self-effacing force, said Lafreniere.

And they got caught up in his enthusiasm for the school.

“When he has this vision, he’s able to put so much energy into getting it done,” Lafreniere said. And he is a caring boss.

The lead disciplinarian at the school, Lafreniere said he can go into Pierce’s office, talk openly about his frustrations or merely release a “primal scream.”

“He understands,” Lafreniere said. “I’m going to miss his friendship more than anything.”

A nationwide search is about to begin for Pierce’s replacement, said Nina Schlikin, School Union 29’s superintendent.

Ads are being placed locally and in national trade publications. A selection committee is being formed. The goal: nominate a candidate to the School Committee by early May.

It’s a bittersweet exercise, though.

“We’re all in a state of mourning,” Schlikin said.

That’s true for Pierce most of all. The 38-year-old educator wasn’t looking for something else.

In the new job, he’ll help create another school using nontraditional methods. It’s a new challenge, but it’s not meant to replace Poland, he said.

“I’m forever going to have a huge piece of my heart and mind here,” he said.

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