DIXFIELD – The Western Foothills School District board Tuesday received the job descriptions for the soon-to-be-established central office.

The job descriptions, which will be acted on at the next meeting, reshuffles and restructures many of the positions now in SADs 43, 21 and 39, which make up the new Regional School Union 10.

Thomas Ward, recently named superintendent of the RSU, said half of the 6.9 positions that are being eliminated as a result of forming the school system will be phased out through attrition. Employees in the remaining positions will lose their jobs.

Employees have applied for their jobs. Interviews begin Friday and conclude Tuesday. All jobs are expected to be filled this month.

Payment for attending board meetings and subcommittee meetings also was discussed Tuesday.

Some on the board members want to suspend the $25 payment for attending board and committee meetings until the school system has a budget. Right now, board members are paid by their respective districts.

“That money adds up,” said Buckfield representative John Phillips. “It could take away from the kids. I don’t think we should get paid.”

Ward said the board and the subcommittees have considerable work ahead of them and recommended they be paid.

Chairman Jerry Wiley appointed a subcommittee to look into the costs of paying members, as well as the possibility the state may have money set aside to cover unexpected school system expenses. Subcommittee members Judy Boucher, Byron, Cindy Bissell, Canton, and Maida DeMers-Dobson, Buckfield, will report back at the next meeting.

That next meeting, at Buckfield Junior-Senior High School, will also be when a timeline for developing a budget will be presented.

The three superintendents, SAD 21’s Ward, SAD 43’s Jim Hodgkin, and SAD 39’s Rick Colpitts, will meet this week to put their budgets together and begin discussions. The total approved to operate the three districts for this school year was just under $34 million: $7 million for SAD 39, $11.5 million for SAD 21, and $15.4 million for SAD 43.

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