Diane Robitaille, the beloved veteran teacher who fell ill last fall, walked back into St. Dominic Regional High School on Friday.

After nearly a year away, she felt like she’d come home.

“It was so great,” she said. “I’m back!”

Robitaille graduated from St. Dom’s in 1969. In 1977, she jumped at the chance to return to teach computer classes and lead the school’s cheerleading team. Students loved her kindness. Co-workers loved her energy and spirit. The school became her home.

So last fall, when doctors told her that her 30-year battle with diabetes had taken its toll and her kidneys were failing, Robitaille continued to work. Then, on Sept. 11, tests showed her kidneys were failing and four arteries in her heart were blocked. She underwent bypass surgery. During a second procedure, she had a stroke.

On April 26, she received a kidney transplant from her 41-year-old niece.

Robitaille spent months on medical leave. She looked forward to one thing: school.

On Friday, as St. Dom’s officially started its school year, the 54-year-old finally got her wish. Students hugged her. Co-workers welcomed her. Her return was mentioned during Mass.

Robitaille told the students never to doubt the power of prayer. She is living proof, she said.

Robitaille will work part-time until her strength returns. So far, she said, everything is going well. Especially now that she’s back at school.

“I feel very blessed,” she said.

– Lindsay Tice
Gambling for peas

SAD 58 Superintendent Quenten Clark wants answers and he intends to get them.

Citing three instances when state inspectors seemed to be “beating the bushes,” Clark wondered aloud Friday, “What on earth are they doing in Augusta? Isn’t there any real crime?”

A state poultry inspector did not summon any vendors when he visited the Farmington farmers’ market recently, but why was a poultry inspector even there? There’s no poultry sold at the farmers’ market, Clark said.

A state health inspector, after finding no asbestos in the Kingfield Elementary School recently, insisted that several tiles in the hallway be pulled up to ensure there’s no asbestos in the underlying glue.

But what really got Clark was a story in the Katahdin Press about a state police public safety inspector who forced a Millinocket McDonald’s manager to shut down a decade-old bingo game. Seniors have been meeting every Monday at the hamburger joint to play for big stakes – cans of peas, packages of Ramen noodles or boxes of macaroni and cheese, the article said. Despite the fact that participants did not pay to play, the inspector deemed it an illegal gaming operation.

Clark will take the opportunity Friday as he rides along in the Phillips Old Home Days parade to discuss this matter with state Rep. Tom Saviello.

Should make for an interesting trip.

– Jodi Hausen
Popularity contest

WASHINGTON – In the fickle world of political popularity, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are tops.

The senators are rated first and second, respectively, in a SurveyUSA poll released Friday.

Some 77 percent of Mainers polled approve of Snowe’s performance, an approval rate that’s been on a steady climb since the spring. And, 74 percent of Mainers approve of how Collins is doing her job, a rating that has also climbed since May.

Perhaps even more notable is that Snowe and Collins join only one other Republican, Sen. John McCain, in the top 13-ranked senators.

The numbers shift slightly when net job approval is considered, but Snowe and Collins are still tops at 59 percent and 53 percent net approval ratings, respectively.

Considering the negative 4 percent net approval rating for Sen. Rick Santorum, who represents Pennsylvania but doesn’t even live there, and the negative 2 percent net approval rating for Oklahoma’s Tom Coburn, a political Rambo who is reported to have single-handedly “derailed” appropriations when he was in the House in 1999, Mainers appear to have elected and support senators who truly represent their interests.

– Judith Meyer