LIVERMORE FALLS — Regional School Unit 73 directors voted to hire Steven Leunig, a veteran educator and administrator, as the interim principal of Spruce Mountain High School South.

Leunig was given a one-year contract and a wage of $77,000 for up to 216 days, Superintendent Bob Wall said after the meeting. If Leunig works fewer than 216 days, the pay will be adjusted accordingly, Wall said.

Leunig has been in education since 1978, Leunig said while the board was in executive session.

About half of that time was spent as a technology education teacher, which was formerly known as industrial arts, he said.

He was in administration from 1994 to 2009, including nine years as high school administrator in Long Island, N.Y., and from 2001 to 2007 as assistant principal at Tripp Middle School in Turner.

He went back to New York for the past four years after one of his sons decided he wanted to go to college there, Leunig said.

During that time, Leunig served as an administrator for three years and taught one year in a vocational education school.

He is taking on the Livermore Falls school as the staff and students enter their second year of a school improvement grant. It is also the first year of consolidation for Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls students.

“I worked on school improvement in several schools,” Leunig said, adding that he has the experience to move the school forward, raise academic rigor, and keep kids motivated and working.

He is very much looking forward to the challenges ahead, including working with North Campus Interim Principal Gilbert Eaton, another veteran educator and administrator, to bring the two high schools together.

“I think the commitment and resources are there,” Leunig said. “My goal is to support that and move it forward.”

The position is a good match for his skill set and philosophy, he said. “I think there are great gains to be made on all fronts.”

Leunig is married to Susan Leunig, an education technician in the Oxford Hills school system. The couple has two sons, Warren, 24, who is looking for a teaching job, and Steven, 23, who was just hired by Amtrak as a conductor.

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