Two alternative education teachers resign

DIXFIELD — The Western Foothills Regional School Unit 10 board welcomed several re-elected members and accepted the resignations of two alternative education teachers at its meeting Monday night.

This was the first board meeting since last week’s elections.

Returning to represent the Buckfield region was Maida Demers-Dobson; the Dirigo region, Bruce Ross; and the Mountain Valley region, Tracey Higley and Betty Barrett.

The reorganizational meeting was delayed until the second meeting in August.

The resignations of Jonathan Longley, alternative education teacher at Dirigo Middle School in Dixfield, and Cindy Paine, alternative education teacher at Mountain Valley High School in Rumford, were accepted.

Also, Buckfield English teacher Matthew Anderson, was granted a one-year leave of absence.

All three positions will be filled.

In a related matter, the board granted Superintendent Tom Ward authority to hire staff during the summer months.

Board meetings will be reduced to one in June and one in July. The twice-monthly meetings will resume in August.

In other matters, the board approved a lease with the town of Dixfield for use of about half of the space in the town garage at $15,000 annually, subject to cost of living increases.

They also accepted the low bid of 2.2 percent from Northeast bank for a Revenue Anticipation Note of up to $2.6 million.

Ward said the district has never had to borrow more than $800,000 for such a purpose, and it was usually when three pay periods occurred in one month.

Also on Monday, the board:

— Learned that the Buckfield Junior High School sports teams have withdrawn from the Pine Tree League and will soon join the Sandy Andy League.

— Heard a presentation by several students and chaperones who took part in a community service project along the Appalachian Trail near Rangeley. Leader of the group, teacher Karolyn Buotte, said 12 students and four adults built a tent platform along a portion of the trail.

— Learned that next year’s graduations from the region’s three high schools will be held at three separate times. This year, both Buckfield’s and Mountain Valley’s high school graduations were held on Saturday night. Because of that, the superintendent was not able to attend one of the ceremonies.

— Said thank you and goodbye to Linda Berry, the board’s representative from Carthage. Berry had served on the former SAD 21 board for eight years, and the last year on the RSU 10 board.

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