RUMFORD – The Western Foothills School District board on Tuesday unanimously approved an operating budget just slightly lower than the current combined budgets of its three member districts.

That figure, $34,128,524, will now go before the voters of the 12 member towns on June 4 for a town meeting-styled vote at Dirigo High School, then to referendum in each member town on June 9.

In the meantime, each of the three areas comprising the Foothills district will hold public informational meetings. Those will be: June 1 at the Buckfield town office for the SAD 39 area; June 2 at Dirigo High School for the SAD 21 area; and June 3 at the Mexico town hall for the SAD 43 area. Each meeting will begin at 6 p.m.

The combined budgets of the three districts for school year 2008-09 is $34.2 million for the just under 3,000-pupil region.

No staff members lost jobs, largely because of federal stimulus money. Those positions that were eliminated were the result of the current holders either retiring or leaving their positions for others. Among those eliminated were the newly created position of assistant superintendent for the Foothills district, Jim Hodgkin, who is leaving at the end of June for a superintendent’s position at Oak Hill Consolidated School District based in Wales, and the position of director of the Pennacook Learning Center in Rumford. The director, Cindy Theriault, is retiring at the end of the school year.

The duties assigned to the assistant superintendent will be picked up by curriculum coordinator, Gloria Jenkins, and Foothills Superintendent, Dr. Tom Ward. The district’s co-special education directors, Paula Leavitt and Clarissa Brown, will supervise the Pennacook Learning Center.

Several staff members from each district will also be reassigned to other areas in the region so that class sizes will remain even. Also, several teachers who are retiring will not have their positions replaced.

In other matters at Tuesday’s meeting, the board unanimously appointed Melanie Chasse of Jay to the position of Meroby Elementary School principal in Mexico.

She will begin her new duties on July 1. She replaces Scott Drown who is leaving the position he has held for nearly a dozen years for a similar position, as yet unknown.

Chasse, originally from East Millinocket, is a graduate of the University of Maine at Farmington and the University of Southern Maine. She has taught in nearby SAD 9 and the Jay School Department. The Meroby administrative position will be her first as a full-time principal.