RSU 9 approves copier lease, assistant track coach, fiddler trip

FARMINGTON — Regional School Unit 9 directors voted Tuesday to authorize the superintendent to enter into a photocopier lease agreement that will save $10,459.68 annually for the next two years.

Two leases with annual payments of $47,515.73 expire in July 2018 and Sept. 15, 2018, will be replaced with one lease with an annual payment of $37,056.05 that would expire on July 15, 2021, according to district Business Manager Kris Pottle.

The district has been doing an ongoing review of copiers and replacing them, while still saving money.

Under the new lease, the district will receive 11 new copiers to replace 11 copiers with high meter counts in a public school where they are nearing the end of their lives, she said.

The principal cost of the copiers is $169,967.85 and they would be leased at 3.763 percent interest.

Most of the copiers being replaced are five years old and one is eight and a half years old.

In other action, the board also approved hiring an assistant coach for the middle school’s spring track team because of safety concerns and the growing number of students participating.

The stipend is $1,000.

Assistant Middle School Principal/Athletic Director Katie Duchesne told the board that coaches approached her and expressed concerns about student safety.

RSU 9 restructured schools at the elementary level in the 2014-15 school year and moved sixth-graders to the middle school. That increased the number of athletes in the no-cut sport, Duchesne said.

Superintendent Tom Ward said it is a safety and liability issue.

It is projected that 75 students will participate in the coming season, she said.

There are two co-coaches and it is difficult to keep watch on all of the students involved in the different track events, Duchesne said.

Director Betsey Hyde of Temple said she was fully in favor of adding an assistant coach. She has seen how student athletes are engaged in athletic events, even those who may struggle to control their emotions.

The $1,000 stipend will come out of the co-extracurricular line in the school budget.

Directors also approved an April cultural trip for the Franklin County Fiddlers to Vermont, Montreal and Quebec City.

Orchestra teacher and professional fiddler Steve Muise and his wife, Debby Muise, and three chaperones will go on the trip from April 12 to 19. The chaperones and the Muises will pay their own way.

The three goals of the trip are to work with professional traditional musicians, who will help the student musicians grow musically and stylistically, perform for school groups and visit colleges, according to Steve Muise.

The Franklin County Fiddlers account, through fundraising and performances, will pay for the Cyr coach bus, which will cost $8,100.

They are planning a variety of concerts and fundraisers to defray the additional costs of the trip. The fiddlers have also benefited from donations as well.

dperry@sunmediagroup.net