RUMFORD – The Western Foothills School District board narrowly granted a one-year sabbatical for a Mountain Valley High School teacher. They also approved a service learning trip to the Dominican Republic for 30 Dirigo High School students.

Carolyn Youcis Lynch had requested the 2009-10 school year off so she could take an educational internship. At issue was the timeliness of the request.

According to policy, requests for sabbaticals must be made by Jan. 1 and the request was not made until May.

She explained to the board at an earlier meeting that she waited to learn whether she had been accepted into the program. Those on sabbatical receive salary and benefits.

The board voted 7-6, with one abstention, to grant her request. Superintendent Tom Ward said funds to pay for a teacher to replace her for the year will come from a reduction in the number of hours paid to a social worker who had requested a shorter work week.

Amity Beane, the Spanish teacher at Dirigo High School who has traveled to the Dominican Republic a dozen times over the years, received almost unanimous approval to take 30 students to the island country in April. While there, the students will visit an orphanage to pass out school supplies and other items, work at a teen center, and devote part of their time to working in a bilingual school.

Each student is required to bring at least $50 worth of items to pass out to children. They also must keep a journal and take photographs of their trip.

In other matters, the board changed the night of their meetings to Mondays beginning in July. Those meetings are set for July 13, Aug. 10 and Aug. 24 in the school district central office in Dixfield.

The final Tuesday meeting on June 23 will take place at the Pennacook Learning Center in Rumford.

Jim Aylward, an English teacher and coach at Mountain Valley High School, was named Accreditation Steering Committee chairman. The high school’s self-study portion of the accreditation process will begin in the fall in preparation for a visit by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.