FARMINGTON – SAD 9 directors Tuesday night welcomed two new principals.
Darlene Paine was named principal of the Wilton schools and Tracy Douglass for the Mallett school.
“We’re very pleased to present both candidates,” saod Director Robert Pullo of Wilton.
Paine was previously principal of Searsport Elementary School and active in community programs in her hometown of Orrington.
Douglass, a graduate of the University of Maine at Farmington, previously served as the state program co-coordinator for Maine Reading Recovery and graduate outreach instructor for the University of Maine, College of Education and Human Development.
Board members reviewed the remainder of the 2005-06 school budget and heard comments and suggestions from several teachers and some parents.
Class size, split grade classrooms and the need for more education technicians were some of the requests.
Robin Bragg, a teacher and spokeswoman for teachers at Cushing school, asked the board to reinstate a teaching position taken from the first grade at her school and give it to the third grade at Academy Hill School.
Bragg reported there are 58 students in the three second-grade classrooms at Cushing school, and dividing those children into two third-grade classrooms at Academy Hill School would be the wrong move.
“We wouldn’t be asking for this, but it’s a critical need,” said Bragg.
Also speaking on behalf of her fellow teachers and students was Myrna Robertson, a sixth-grade teacher at the Cape Cod Hill School.
She said split-grade classrooms placed pressure on the teachers to teach both curriculums and required them to meet two sets of learning standards.
Particular emphasis was placed on the lack of attention in split grade classes, and Robertson asserted that while it was also difficult for the staff to teach the class, it’s even more difficult for a student to learn anything.
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