TURNER — Maine School Administrative District 52 is almost ready for a new school year.

Administrators of the Turner-based district gave updates Thursday on facilities work, hiring and donations to the directors.

“There is a ginormous wiring project at (Turner Elementary School) that is going to come in under the wire,” Superintendent Cari Medd said. “We’ll see if it’s done on the first day of school. They’re working really, really hard.”

“Boiler project at Greene (Central School) is also on schedule to be completed before heating season begins,” she said. “And then, the lighting project is on track to be completed September, October but it won’t disrupt school at all,” Medd added.

The district still has a number of vacancies that might not get filled.

“We do have 22 ed tech openings, which is a bummer,” Medd said. “Four applications came in just in the last week. So, interviews have been scheduled.”

“A lot of the ed techs at the middle school are actually covered by (substitute teachers) who’ve been here for a while, and they’re just working on getting certified,” she added. “It costs us more money, but it fills some of those goals.”

Similar to the past, the district will continue to contract a board-certified behavior analyst. “Last year, we added a board-certified behavior analyst, BCBA. We have contracted for hours of support in the past. We have not had applications for that. So, we will continue to contract,” she said.

The Leavitt Area High School will not have a science teacher for the year. “The high school had a late science teacher resignation for July, maybe early July,” Medd said. “We have not been able to hire for that. They have changed the schedule to just run the year without that position filled.”

Tripp Middle School will not have an instructional coach this year, Medd said. “The instructional coach at the middle school resigned two or three days ago. We will not fill that.”

However, a new bus driver hire has led to the reopening of a route in Turner, Medd said Thursday.

“We still have three open driving positions but we are in better shape than we were last spring,” the superintendent said. “We still have one combined route in Leeds and one in Greene. Each time we hire another driver, we’ll be able to split those runs again.”

“The good news is both Pam Miller and Cheyenne Pool, the transportation specialists who were driving full time last spring, do not need to drive full time (anymore). They will be available for call-outs and things like that. We will be in a better place than we were last spring,” Medd added.

Tripp Middle School is set to receive a total of $1,400 in donations: $150 from Charlene Picard, $250 from Hazel Hill Orchard and $1,000 from Androscoggin Bank’s MainStreet Foundation to buy nonperishable food for the Tiger Pantry Program.

Turner Elementary School will receive $2,848 from Turner Ministerial and Grammar School Fund for educational expenses.

The biggest donation comes from the Suzanne and Galen Cole Donor Advised Fund —$29,000 will be used to support Maine partnerships in improving the district’s literacy efforts.