POLAND — The RSU 16 committee voted Monday to hire Good Group Decisions of Brunswick to help develop a strategic plan for the district.

Voters, in approving this year’s school budget, set aside $19,000 to hire a firm to assist school officials in establishing a vision for what direction education in the three towns should take and a three- to five-year plan for how to get there.

Good Group Decisions, headed by Craig Freshley, will hold a series of meetings, involving not only those directly involved in the day-to-day operation of the schools, but also members of the community at large. The purpose is to gather support and ideas for what schools ought to be offering — and how that can best be accomplished with the financial resources available to the towns.

School Superintendent Michael Wilhelm reported that the school year was off to an exceptionally fine start, thanks to “a whole lot of energy” put forth by the whole school community. The icing, he said, was the recognition of Whittier Middle School special education teacher, Shannon Shanning, being named 2013 Maine Teacher of the Year in a surprise ceremony earlier in the day.

“Indeed, a great honor for RSU 16,” committee Chairman Mary Ella Jones said.

Wilhelm also said that plans for a reception in Shanning’s honor, giving people who had been unable to attend Monday’s announcement a chance to join the celebration, were in the works. It is tentatively scheduled for Monday, Sept. 17, at the Poland Community School.

In other business, the committee approved a $3,350 stipend to provide English as a Second Language instruction for four students, a $500 stipend to provide teacher support for the use of Moodle (an open-source, Web-based application for producing courses), and a $2,000 stipend for website support across the district.

Wilhelm cited the necessity of establishing these three last-minute stipend accounts as support for setting up some form of contingency account in the future.

He also noted that Principal Arthur Reed had been able to handle unexpected last-minute enrollment for kindergarten classes at the Minot Consolidated School. He shifted an ed tech to help with classes that jumped to 19 and 20 students, respectively.

Reed noted that six students were enrolled just days before school started.

The committee also voted to hold some of its future meetings in the district’s elementary schools, leaving to Wilhelm the exact schedule of when appearances will be made at the Elm Street School, the Minot Consolidated School and the Poland Community School.

Wilhelm also announced that the public is invited to a special presentation on the Maine School Funding Formula and how the local share is calculated. It’s scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Poland Regional High School auditorium.

Councilors from Mechanic Falls, as well as selectmen from Minot and Poland, will attend the presentation given by Gerald Clockedile, a retired superintendent, who has experience with these presentations.

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