FARMINGTON — The Regional School Unit 9 board of directors voted unanimously after an executive session on Tuesday, March 12, to name Joel Smith as the principal for Mt. Blue High School [MBHS] for the 2024-2025 school year.

According to Superintended Christian Elkington, Smith will see a compensation increase to $119,000 for 24-25 and he will receive a two-year contract.

Smith served as interim principal for MBHS over the last year after stepping in for Monique Poulin, who left the role to become the assistant superintendent of instruction, curriculum, and grants.

“We’ve had a great eight months,” Smith told The Franklin Journal after the vote. “We still have a lot more of the year left and I’m looking forward to finishing it out.”

Smith shared the school, along with the rest of the district has made great strides in student attendance and he hopes to continue the trend into the next school year.

“I think we have a great staff at Mt. Blue High School,” Smith shared. “So it makes my job easy.”

A graduate of the University of Maine at Farmington with a bachelors degree of science, Smith joined the district in 1997 at Mt. Blue Middle School [MBMS] as a science teacher, where he worked to foster an environment for learning and engaged students in the sciences in the 16 years he worked at MBMS.

During this time, he graduated from the University of Maine with a masters degree in education in 2006 and assumed the role of assistant principal at MBMS in 2009, where he collaborated with educators to address the specific needs of the student body until he left for MBHS in 2016.

As assistant principal for MBHS, Smith worked to improve school policies and procedure and coordinated the BARR [Building Assets, Reducing Risk] program, which is one of the key components to RSU 9 strategy of reducing the rate of chronic absenteeism.

Along with his 26 years of experience as an educator and administrator for RSU 9, Smith has also earned himself multiple recognitions, such as Outstanding District Employee Award for 2016-2017 and the KVAC Coach of the Year for 2006, 2008, and 2017.

Smith has also served on several committees, including the Curriculum Coordinating Committee [2006 – 2016], RSU 9 Educational Advisory Committee [2006 – present], the Science Subject Area Committee [1997 – 2018], the MBC 27 Committee [2023 – present] and the RSU 9 SEL Committee [2022 – present].

In other business, an administrative report from John Jones, director of special services, has been postponed to the board’s next scheduled meeting on Tuesday, March 26.

During good news stories, Director Carol Coles of Starks congratulated her successor Katie Martikke, who won the position for RSU 9 representative from Starks with 106 votes. Coles elected not to seek re-elections, with Martikke running against Erin Norton for the position, who only received one vote.

Director Judith “Libby” Kaut of New Sharon extended the same congratulations to her successor Gerald Provencher Jr., who ran unopposed in New Sharon with 177 votes. Kaut also elected not to run for re-election.

Directors Wayne J. Kinney and Scott Erb of Farmington extended a congratulation to Director Rich Ruhlin of Industry for retaining his seat on the board of directors. Ruhlin ran unopposed and received 18 votes, and also served as moderator for the annual Industry town meeting.

The board of directors voted on three policy changes for the following policies: ADA District Goals and Objectives, ILD Ed Research Student Submission to Surveys, Analyses or Evaluations, and JICBA Student Debt & Obligations.

Vice-Chair Gwen Doak of Wilton shared a communication from Kaut, who felt the wording in one section of policy ADA was too vague.

The section in question, as originally written states, “The board will regularly evaluate progress toward meeting the goals and will adopt appropriate policies designed to facilitate their accomplishment.” 

Director Joshua Robbins of Vienna presented a motion to revise the section with Ruhlin presenting a friendly amendment to Robbins’ motion. The board voted unanimously on the amended section, which will now read, “The board will annually in the spring, evaluate progress toward meeting the goals designed to facilitate their accomplishment.”

All three policy updates, with the amendments made to ADA, were voted unanimously by the board.

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