Faculty with a combined hundred-plus years in the classroom will retire.
RUMFORD – When the school year ends, SAD 43 will lose teachers with a combined 130 years of experience.
At Monday’s board meeting, the board accepted three resignations from longtime district teachers who plan to retire in June.
Richard Plante, a Meroby Elementary School fourth-grade teacher, will leave with 38 years within the district; John Wallace, a Mountain Valley Middle School teacher who is known for organizing science fairs over the years, has taught 34 years; and Dawn Allen, a mathematics teacher at Mountain Valley High School who had taught for 25 years. At an earlier meeting, Richard Nile, a third-grade teacher at Meroby Elementary School, submitted his resignation for the purpose of retirement after having taught in the district for 33 years.
Also on Monday, the board appointed all administrators for the upcoming school year. These include Matthew Gilbert, principal of Mountain Valley High School; Charles Lever, principal of Mountain Valley Middle School; Anne Chamberlin, principal of Rumford Elementary School; Scott Drown, principal of Meroby Elementary School; Christopher Decker, assistant principal at the high school; Ryan Casey, assistant principal at the middle school; Diane Taylor-Moore, director of special education and the Pennacook Learning Center; Wally Devoe, technology coordinator; and John Bernard, athletic director.
Another 120 teachers were granted continuing contracts for school year 2006-2007.
In other matters, Superintendent Jim Hodgkin said the next part of the budget development for the upcoming year will be heard at the board meeting on March 7. At that time, requests by the building and grounds director, technology coordinator, central office and food service director will be heard.
He said Tuesday that a budget that includes all requests will be available at the March 20 board meeting. From there, the board will hold a workshop session on March 27 to begin paring down the gross figure.
Even with that, Hodgkin said, he expects at least a 3 percent increase over last year’s budget of $13,975,000, to about $14.4 million, because of contractual agreements. He said staff salaries and benefits comprise nearly 80 percent of the district’s total operating costs.
Comments are no longer available on this story