JAY – Regional School Unit 73 directors asked for more information Tuesday on several items related to the proposed $18.9 million school budget for 2012-13.

Vice Chairwoman Mary Redmond-Luce of Jay and Chairwoman Denise Rodzen of Livermore Falls requested information on how much time the assistant special education director/assistant principal is spent in each position.

Wendy Moreau, whose name was not mentioned during the meeting, was the former special education director for RSU 36 prior to consolidation with Jay last year. She was appointed the assistant director for the districtwide special education program and as assistant principal at Livermore Elementary School.

Jay’s director of special services, Tina Collins, remained as director of the special education program. There is no assistant principal at the Jay Elementary School and the principal there has about the same number of students but no assistant principal, Redmond-Luce said.

A specialized developmental program was set up to be run out of the Livermore Elementary School for students who needed the special services from both the Jay and Livermore schools.

Redmond-Luce also asked to find out the number of students at both schools and the number that need the services.

The Livermore Elementary School has more students, school Principal Robert Kahler said. Moreau also oversees the prekindergarten program at the Cedar Street Learning Center in Livermore Falls for students from both schools, he said. She is involved in many of the meetings on individual education programs for students in the special services program, he said.

Redmond-Luce and Rodzen asked if the Livermore Elementary School needs an assistant principal.

Information on the positions and percentage of time spent in each one will be brought to the board meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 26, at the Cedar Street Board Room in Livermore Falls.

Collins said Moreau probably serves more than half of her time in special education but she will get a breakdown.

Redmond-Luce said the need has been established for special education but still wanted to know why there is a need for an assistant principal at one school.

In discussion of eliminating the dean of students position at the south campus high school in Livermore Falls, Superintendent Robert Wall said there would be an administrative support position added to assist the principal.

When asked, south campus Principal Steve Leunig said he had advocated for more than a support position. The north campus high school and the middle school each have an administrative support person to assist principals with discipline and other areas.

Leunig said he has never worked at a high school that didn’t have an assistant principal. The demands of the job, including the instructional and discipline pieces, more than require an extra person, he said.

Directors also had questions about other proposed full-time position cuts, including health and alternative education. In the alternative education program at the middle school a teacher would be replaced by an educational technician II.

Rodzen said ever since the budget has come out she feels there has been an elephant in the room. Personnel at the south campus high school have been told positions would be eliminated. The former Livermore Falls High School is scheduled to close in June 2013 and not serve freshman 2012-13.

She asked if the majority of those positions would come from the educators that were formerly in the RSU 36 school district. All students are expected to attend the Jay campus for the 2013-14 year.

“It’s kind of a political elephant,” Wall said. “We don’t know who is affected.”

Officials will follow the process in the union contract and people will be notified who will not have a position next year, he said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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