RUMFORD – SAD 21 has put Dirigo High School’s head varsity baseball coach on administrative leave following his arrest on a sex charge involving an underage teenager.

Superintendent Thomas Ward says he will meet with attorneys today to decide if Donald Hebert, 33, of Route 120 in Rumford, who is also a faculty member, will be paid during the leave.

Following an investigation by the Rumford Police Department that began Sept. 7, Hebert, who was also the junior varsity girls basketball coach at Mountain Valley High School during the 2006-2007 season, was charged with sexually assaulting a teenager in Rumford during the past year.

Administrators at Dirigo and Mountain Valley high schools say they are taking steps to make today a “normal school day.”

“We will be meeting with staff and talking with them about how to handle the students and their questions,” Ward said Sunday evening.

“Guidance counselors, the superintendent, the vice principal and myself will all sit down (today) to come up with a plan,” said Mountain Valley High School Principal Matt Gilbert. “Through resources within the community, we’re going to make sure we have a support network available for the victim.”

Gilbert said he hadn’t received any phone calls from concerned parents over the weekend, but anticipates he will have messages waiting for him at the school today.

According to Gilbert, Hebert has held positions as Mountain Valley’s athletic director, soccer coach and as a soccer official in the past.

SAD 43 Superintendent James Hodgkin, who says he has known Hebert for a long time, was “shocked” to hear of his arrest.

“I sensed there was an investigation going on, but I had no sense that he was the target,” Hodgkin said. “He’s got a wife and two little children, so I’m concerned for them.”

“This will be tough for his family,” Gilbert agreed.

Hebert is free on $800 cash bail and will be arraigned at Oxford County Superior Court in Paris at 8 a.m. on Jan. 24.

According to Rumford police Sgt. David Bean, Hebert’s bail conditions include having “no contact with the victim, which is standard for the charge, and no contact with children under the age of 18, except for his own children.”

Police Detective Lt. Mark Cayer had said Friday the investigation began after Rumford police received information alleging that Hebert was engaged in a sexual relationship with a student under the age of 18.

Rumford police and the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Task Force seized “a significant amount of evidence” during a search of Hebert’s home Friday afternoon, according to Cayer.

He would not identify the nature of the evidence collected.

“This is involving students, so I want to be careful,” he said. “We’ve had very good cooperation from the school systems involved and, at this point, we don’t feel that any other students are in jeopardy.”