GREENE – Rising kindergarten enrollment at the Greene Central School resulted in the SAD 52 directors approving an additional teacher Thursday night.

Superintendent Thomas Hanson displayed a chart that showed this will not only be the first year for full-time kindergarten, at 167 students as of Thursday, but it also will be the largest kindergarten class ever in the district.

Latest figures show 80 kindergarten students registered in Turner with five teachers, 30 students in Leeds with two teachers, and 57 students in Greene with three teachers, before the fourth was added Thursday night.

Total district enrollment in grades kindergarten through six has increased by 74 in the last two years.

During the 2004-05 school year, the grades with the largest enrollments were seven through 12. This year, with declining enrollments in the middle and high schools, highest enrollments will be found in the elementary grades, with new students being added daily.

Hanson handed board members another chart showing that because of recent resignations and hirings in the district, the new kindergarten teacher can be added while keeping the payroll budget in the black.

“We have and always will be seeking the best possible person for every position, and we are fortunate that right now the payroll account can handle this new person,” he said.

On another matter, Hanson presented the board with a video presentation on the new Western Maine Education Collaborative Inc., which has been formed after several months of organizational effort by superintendents from the towns of Buckfield, Livermore, Jay, Winthrop and SAD 52.

He said the collaborative has a new executive director, Mona Baker, has established meeting dates for the coming year, and will have a Web site up and running on Sept. 5. Hanson noted the group will focus its initial initiatives on saving schools money through collective purchasing power.

The superintendent also updated the board on efforts to form a new alternative education program for the district and perhaps additional neighboring schools, such as those in the collaborative. He spoke briefly to the board about a recent presentation from a regional alternative school in Windham, which he found “amazing in its complexity and diversity.”

He said he would have “something concrete” in the fall to present to the board for alternative education.

Directors voted to terminate the district’s alternative education program as of last June, and gave the superintendent a year to put together an effective program to begin in the fall of 2007.

In other action, directors voted to grant the son of Joseph Greco of Greene an exception to its policy on sports participation and permit him to play in the Tripp league football program. Current board policy requires a student to either be a student at Tripp Middle School, or be home-schooled, to participate.

Greco’s son attends a religious school that has no sports program.

Director Peter Ricker moved to grant the exception for Greco, which was approved, and requested the Curriculum/Policy Committee to consider the policy.

Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Darlene Burdin reported that the district had qualified for a federal grant of $61,052 that would pay for free lunches for qualifying students, a camera, professional development for teachers and a math intervention program.