DIXFIELD — Regional School Unit 56 Superintendent Pam Doyen said she wants to help the fledgling four-town district get going, and her leadership experiences have prepared her to do so. 

“I just want to help move them forward, and it felt like it would be a challenging but rewarding opportunity for me,” the lifelong Livermore resident said.

She officially began her duties July 1, the first day of operations for the district, which includes Canton, Carthage, Dixfield and Peru.

Last year, Doyen was assistant superintendent for RSU 10, from which the four towns withdrew last year to save money and gain more local control.

She credits that yearlong experience with providing many contacts and opportunities to attend the Western Maine Superintendents Association and the Maine Superintendents Association meetings.

“So, I felt like I had established a network enough so that I could move into this position without feeling like I was on an island by myself,” she said.

She plans to focus on effective communication regarding district operations.

“I think it’s a matter of trying to find a balance of what’s sustainable in a district this size and (also to) be fiscally responsible,” she said. “So, it’s really about offering a good education, and when I say education, I mean everything: the school, the after-school sports, the cocurricular, it really needs to be everything.”

“I heard one very intelligent assistant principal say, ‘Everybody is going to have to do more,’ which we all know we will, but really we have to do ‘less’ better,” she said. “Instead of trying to be everything, we have to do what we do really well.”

She also wants to dispel misinformation.

When the district’s first budget was rejected in June by a vote of 375-596, Doyen said she heard there was a group of people who thought that a ‘no’ vote would get the towns back into RSU 10. If the townspeople chose to join with another district they would have to wait at least one full year, she said.

And she wants to hear from residents, she said.

“I want to be able to be approachable to the people in the community so that I can gather more insights into what these four communities want,” Doyen said. “And that’s my role in terms of whatever the communities want I’m going to help them. I’m all about wanting to be proud of our school district whether it’s separate or it’s merged in with somebody else and offering their kids every advantage possible.”

Doyen was a principal for School Administrative District 52 schools in Greene and Leeds, and before that she was a literacy specialist and classroom teacher in Livermore for about 20 years.

She said her career as a principal was good preparation for being a superintendent because of many similarities in the two.

Being a principal is a smaller version of being a superintendent, she said.

“As a principal you have one school to run, one budget to prepare and as you become superintendent it becomes bigger, with multiple schools and a bigger budget but it’s really similar in terms of you’re in charge of this one building and now you’re in charge of three buildings,” she said.

Doyen said she believes in putting students first.

“I truly feel that way,” she said. “As a principal I felt that every kid that walked through the door is ‘my kid’, and as assistant superintendent last year, I just (felt I) have more kids that I’m responsible for. First and foremost it’s the kids that I enjoy.”

And building relationships with students is still as important to her now as it was during her time as a principal, she added. “In any school, it’s about relationships; it’s about building relationships with kids with respect going both ways.”

Doyen and her husband, James, have four children. Her stepson Brandon graduated from Dirigo High School in Dixfield and her stepdaughter Hailey went to Dixfield schools up to grade eight.

mhutchinson@sunmediagroup.net

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