BUCKFIELD — Interim Superintendent Michael Cormier encouraged Regional School Unit 10 directors Monday night to continue giving attention to students in light of four towns withdrawing from the district next year.

“I think your focus is right; you need to focus on the children, (and) how do we move forward to make sure the children don’t suffer,” he said.

The 12-town district will lose a third of its members as of June 30, 2017. On Nov. 8, residents of Dixfield, Canton, Carthage and Peru voted to leave the district and re-form their own school system.

They previously made up School Administrative District 21, but in 2011 joined with SAD 43 in Rumford and SAD 39 in Buckfield to form RSU 10 under the state-mandated school consolidation law.

The towns’ withdrawal effort was prompted by a belief they would save money and have more local control.

The remaining RSU 10 towns are Hanover, Buckfield, Sumner, Hartford, Byron, Mexico, Roxbury and Rumford.

Cormier told the board Monday that the new school district will have to elect directors and hire a superintendent.

An informal meeting on the withdrawal will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 22, at Dirigo High School in Dixfield.

In other business:

* Director Barbara Chow and board Chairman Bruce Ross, both of Dixfield, thanked Cormier for staying on through the withdrawal process and hiring of Superintendent Deborah Alden of Leeds, who is expected to begin her duties Nov. 21.

Cormier, a retired superintendent from RSU 9 in Farmington, stepped into the interim position in August and originally agreed to stay until Sept. 30. He took over after Craig King left Aug. 15 to take a similar position for RSU 15 in Gray-New Gloucester.

* Cormier told the board that a law enforcement-led search at Dirigo High School on Nov. 4 turned up no drugs. He said Assistant Principal Jason Long and Principal Michael Poulin requested the search.

Two state police officers with three drug-sniffing dogs, along with an Oxford County deputy and two Dixfield police officers helped search hallways, locker rooms, bathrooms and parking lots. They did not bring the dogs into the classrooms where students were, he said.

“We are concerned, obviously, about drugs in our schools and we want people not to think that it’s OK to bring them,” Cormier said.

He said drug searches must be requested “by the administrator in the building; it should not be something that you as a board force the school to do.” The reason, he said, is that the board should “want to send positive messages” to the schools and students.

* An executive session was held on the expulsion of a student for drug-related problems. The board voted for reinstatement after the student agreed to seek drug counseling and attend school regularly and on time, Cormier said.

mhutchinson@sunmediagroup.net

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