DIXFIELD — The Regional School Unit 10 board overwhelmingly approved a request by Dirigo High School Principal Michael Poulin to restructure the high and middle schools so that an interim assistant principal would be hired to serve both schools, and not double as athletic director.
For the past year or so, Poulin and former Assistant Principal Michael Hutchins served both schools and also served as athletic director for the high school.
Poulin said that having the assistant principal serve as athletic director at the high school as well as assistant principal at both schools did not allow Hutchins to work on curriculum, instruction and evaluation.
Hutchins left for an administrative position in China on March 8.
Poulin requested a half-time athletic director to serve both high and middle school students.
The approval means that the new assistant principal will serve just in that capacity. The half-time athletic director would be a separate position.
“With 450 students and extensive after-school programming, it’s a tall order for the assistant principal to also serve as athletic director,” Poulin said.
The addition of a half-time athletic director position would cost the district between $18,000 and $24,000 a year, said Superintendent Craig King, as Hutchins was retired with medical and other benefits that the district did not have to pay.
Currently, Dirigo Middle School employs an athletic director who is paid a stipend. This request for a slight change in administrative structure comes on the cusp of some major structural changes that will likely take place within the district in the next few years.
The first public forum on some of those potential structural changes takes place Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Mountain Valley High School.
In other matters, King said he has received a request from the bargaining unit that serves nutrition workers to begin negotiations. The nutrition workers’ current three-year contract expires on June 30.
In a related matter, King said the district recently began negotiations with the bargaining units that represent bus drivers and secretaries.
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