JAY – School Committee members voted Tuesday to hire a new high school principal, as well as two technology integration teachers. They also voted to terminate two teachers.
The board voted 5-0 to appoint John Robinson of Milo as the new Jay High School principal. He was given a two-year contract, from July 1, 2005, to June 30, 2007. His first year’s salary will be $70,000, with the second year to be negotiated at a later date. Current Principal Peter Brown is retiring.
Robinson has worked for 34 years in education and is currently the principal of Penquis Valley High School in Milo, which serves 430 students in grades seven through 12. He started his career as a teacher at a Massachusetts boarding school. He served as headmaster of Lee Academy in Lee for eight years, assistant superintendent/principal of Norwich Free Academy in Connecticut for eight years, superintendent of Isleboro Central School in Isleboro, and then six years at the Milo school.
In earlier action, before the arrival of two School Committee members, Clint Brooks and Joel Pike, the panel voted 3-0 to approve Carol Reed as the technology integration teacher for kindergarten through grade four. They also voted 3-0 to hire Randy Easter as the technology integration teacher for grades five through 12.
Reed is currently the computer teacher at the elementary school, and Easter is the computer teacher at the middle school.
The School Committee voted earlier this year to restructure the technology program, which eliminated three computer teacher positions.
The panel voted 2-0 Tuesday, with Tim Toothaker abstaining, to eliminate the contract of a high school computer teacher, David Corkum, at the end of the school year. Corkum, the father of seven, has been with the Jay school system for 10 years.
The board also voted 3-0 to eliminate the contract of Shelley Franchetti, a Title I reading teacher, at the end of the school year. The latter elimination was due to the school system’s receiving $32,000 less in federal funding for the next school year.
Jay Elementary School Principal Beverly Gillespie said it was a financial decision and that losing Franchetti was a “great loss to our school.”
While the School Committee was in executive session to discuss the principal candidate, Corkum said he was “highly disappointed” with the decision to terminate him.
“I like it here,” he said. “I like the people I work with.”
He said interviews with the three candidates were held last week, and at about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday he was paged during a class and told to report to the front office after class.
It was there, he said, that Principal Peter Brown and curriculum director Joe Makley told him that he was being terminated.
Easter said it was bittersweet because he was pleased to still be in the technology department but felt bad for Corkum.
“He has a great amount of knowledge that we’ll be losing,” Easter said.
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