POLAND — The RSU 16 committee Monday signed Michael Wilhelm to a one-year contract as school superintendent.

 

Wilhelm was hired as interim superintendent in early March after the former superintendent, Dennis Duquette had been placed on a leave of absence.

 

Wilhelm had retired in June 2011, after spending 43 years in education, serving the last 20 as superintendent of SAD 57 in Topsham, but agreed to help out in the short term when RSU 16 lost its two top administrators.

 

His contract with RSU 16 extends through June 30, 2013.

 

In a related move, the school committee also announced that it was forming a search committee for an assistant superintendent and appointed Sue Callahan and Scott Sawyer as the board’s representatives on the search committee.

 

The school committee also accepted, with regrets, the resignation of Whittier Middle School Principal Ayesha Farag-Davis, effective the end of the school year.

 

“There will be a lot of sad eyes around our school,” School Committee Chairman Mary Ella Jones said.

 

Farag-Davis, an extremely popular administrator, first as principal at the Poland Community School and more recently at the middle school, expressed her regret with the timing of her departure.

 

“I am deeply sorry to cause another disruption during a time of transition here in RSU 16,” she said.

 

Farag-Davis said she was leaving because her husband had accepted the position of assistant headmaster at Middlesex School in Concord, Mass., and she was going to use next year to write her doctoral dissertation and help her children become acclimated to a new community.

 

“It is just as well. Right now it is difficult to imagine being a principal elsewhere loving my job, students, staff and community as much as I do right now,” she said.

 

The school committee named Terri Arsenault as its representative to the search committee for Farag-Davis’ replacement.

 

The school committee accepted the resignations of Gil Donatelli, music teacher at Poland Regional High School, and Andrew Young, sixth-grade teacher at Elm Street School.

 

The committee also gave special recognition to Shannon Shanning, special education teacher at Whittier Middle School, who was named one of five semifinalists for Maine Teacher of the Year, and Darren Carter, RSU 16 wellness coordinator, recognized by the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce for his work in RSU 16.