RUMFORD — The Regional School Unit 10 board of directors Monday night extended Superintendent Deb Alden’s contract to 2022 and gave her a 2 1/2 percent pay increase.

“The board felt she did a good job doing what we want (a superintendent) to do,” board Chairman Jerry Wiley said Tuesday.

Alden opted not to accept a raise last year, making this the first year she has accepted a pay hike.

Alden began as superintendent for RSU 10 in November 2016. Before that, she was the special education director for 15 years at Maine School Administrative District 52, which includes Turner, Greene and Leeds.

In other matters, Alden told the school board that as of Monday, the last day of school year is scheduled to be June 10. The district has added an hour to the school day every Wednesday to make up for school cancellations due to weather.

“We have to add one more (extended) Wednesday because one of our days that we were off was a Wednesday,” Alden said, “so the one-hour extension Wednesdays would go until March 20. That would make up two of our days, and then we would go until Monday, June 10.”

Larry Thornton, a jobs specialist for Jobs for Maine Graduates and 18 JMG students involved in the program at Mountain Valley High School, gave a presentation about the program.

Thornton thanked the school board on behalf of the JMG organization for providing the opportunity for students to participate in the program, “which assists (students) in overcoming barriers that they may be facing at school, socially, financially and academically.”

“By working through some of these challenges, students are more easily able to pursue their aspirations and develop a more focused path after high school,” Thornton said.

JMG serves more than 9,000 students in Maine at about 130 schools, including middle schools, high schools and colleges.

Mountain Valley Middle School Principal Ryan Casey and Assistant Principal Cheryl Gurney also spoke Monday night about behavioral and academic interventions used to improve students’ test scores and behavior at MVMS.

The said students in need of positive interventions for academic reasons are given general interventions, such as learning labs or more intensive interventions involving individual learning from Title 1A, the federal government coursework in reading, writing and math.

General behavioral interventions at the middle school are guided by a program recommended by the Maine Department of Education and by the school’s mission statement, A Safe Place to Learn. Examples of more-intensive behavioral interventions for students are in-school suspension or individual counseling.

“The results (from standardized testing data) aren’t yet where we want them, but we’re moving (in the right direction), and (educators are) doing what needs to be done in looking at the data to figure it out,” Alden said.

The board Monday night also approved a three-day trip to Quebec City for French students at Mountain Valley High School. The trip, scheduled for May, is to include a guided bus tour of Quebec City, a dance cruise on the St. Lawrence River and a tour of the Citadelle de Quebec fortress.

mhutchinson@sunmediagroup.net