RSU 10 schools begin Sept. 8 with COVID-19 safety measures

RUMFORD — Regional School Unit 10 students will begin classes Sept. 8 with a combination of in-school and remote learning to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Leanne Condon, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment, explained the options to directors at their meeting Monday.

Students at Hartford-Sumner Elementary School in Sumner, Meroby Elementary School in Mexico and Rumford Elementary School will have in-school learning one less hour a day on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and learn remotely Wednesdays.

Since the first week of school starts on a Tuesday, the first group of students at Mountain Valley High School in Rumford, Mountain Valley Middle School in Mexico and Buckfield Junior-Senior High School will attend in person Tuesday and Wednesday and the second group of students will attend in-person on Thursday and Friday, with both groups learning remotely when not at school.

After the first week, all middle and high school students will learn from home on Wednesdays.

“For middle school and high school, our remote learners will be assigned to classes with teachers and students,” Condon said. “And so, it’s going to be a little difficult for our teachers to have a lot of face-to-face time with them. So the Wednesday (for remote learning for all) is really a good day for middle school and high school teachers to contact our remote learners.”

The district has a “green” designation from the Maine Department of Education that allows students to attend classes in-person this fall as long as they adhere to requirements, including daily symptom screening before school, maintaining physical distancing, wearing masks and face coverings, and practicing hand washing, Condon said.

In other news, Buildings, Grounds and Transportation Director Scott Holmes said four separate heating, ventilation and air conditioning projects underway at Mountain Valley High School and Buckfield Junior-Senior High School will use about $160,000 of coronavirus relief funds.

At Rumford, projects include replacing pneumatic control systems installed in 1968 on the second floor and replacing univent systems in the boys’ and girls’ locker rooms, Holmes said. Also, workers will install digital and air handler controls for the Muskie auditorium.

“They’re pneumatic control rather than digital control, so because of that they’re just not very efficient,” Holmes said. “We’re replacing all of the control systems of the second floor at MVHS and fixing the ventilation system that’s not really up to snuff in the fitness room.”

At Buckfield, the ventilation projects include replacing an air handler in the art room “that is no longer efficient and is detrimental to teaching due to high noise level,” Holmes said.

Director Peter DeFilipp of Mexico asked, “Will the (ventilation updates) make the rooms healthier with the new systems all done and updated?”

Holmes said they would by pulling in the correct amount of air per minute for airflow and ventilation.

On another matter, directors approved leasing two 12-passenger vans for four years for $63,808. They will replace vans at Rumford high school and Sumner school used mostly for special needs students, field trips and extracurricular activities.

“This to me is expensive compared to what we’ve done previously,” Director Michelle Casey of Buckfield said.

Holmes said he had been budgeting the past few years for a larger van for $10,000 and a smaller van for $8,000 but could not “find anything that’s not more than 10 years old and with already 100,000 miles on it.” Because of these issues, leasing new vans will save the district money on maintenance costs, he said.

mhutchinson@sunmediagroup.net