DIXFIELD — In the past three weeks, the number of students with COVID-19 is the highest so far this school year, Superintendent Pam Doyen told Regional School Unit 56 directors Tuesday.

From Nov. 24 to Dec. 14, a total of 188 students were out of school because of infections or close contact with those who tested positive, she said. Thirty-seven were confirmed cases and 151 were quarantined.

“I want to be clear that not all of these positive cases and quarantines were identified (as originating) from within the school,” Doyen said during the board meeting at Dirigo High School.

The students include those from Dirigo Elementary School in Peru and T.W. Kelly Dirigo Middle School and Dirigo High School, both in Dixfield. The district also includes Canton and Carthage.

In other business, the board approved selling two buses by bid: a 21-year-old with 200,000 miles and a 16-year-old with 210,000 miles.

“Both buses we haven’t been using,” Building, Grounds and Transportation Director Kenny Robbins said. “They’re pretty well used up underneath . . . so we felt as though it’d be time to put them up to bid and dispose of them.”

In another bus issue, several directors agreed the district should designate about $25,000 for an architect to work on plans for a bus garage, instead of continuing to rent space from Dixfield.

Doyen said the district could possibly bring the question to voters to ask for $425,000 for the garage. It would take about “16 years to get our payoff off from what we put out and what we pay for a lease. And it would be something that we owned,” she said.

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