SALEM TOWNSHIP — SAD 58 directors Thursday night unanimously approved starting a process to shape a plan for the district’s future.

District volunteers will be asking community members to bring their ideas and hopes for the school system.

Superintendent Brenda Stevens, board Chairman Judy Dill and board member Sue Fotter volunteered to attend a Jan. 18 planning session with consultant Judith Enright to decide how to draft community members for a Steering Committee. That committee possibly could meet in mid-March to begin planning the larger community session.

Last month, Stevens presented Enright, a consultant who works with communities and school systems in Maine and around the country, as someone who could help the school system gauge what is most important in shaping its future.

Stevens urged the board to take a month to think about the commitment to a district visioning session and decide in January.

“I’d like to know what the board’s thoughts are on going ahead with this plan,” she said.

The Steering Committee will plan to recruit volunteers with knowledge of their communities and some interest in long-term planning. The community visioning session will bring together parents, administrators, teachers and students, as well as municipal, business and nonprofit leaders to review the history of the schools in communities, what currently exists in the district, and what participants hope their schools would or could look like in the future.

“(Enright) recommends a teacher from each school and at least three board members be part of this,” Stevens said.

For more information, call the superintendent’s office at 639-2086, ext. 289.

In other news, Stevens announced January enrollment is down 16 students among the four elementary schools, and down 11 at Mt. Abram High School.