RUMFORD — Three members of a Behavior Committee created in August because of a grievance from the district’s teachers’ union spoke about the committee’s findings during the Regional School Unit 10 board of directors meeting at Mountain Valley High School on Monday.

Steve McGinty, one of the vice presidents of the Western Foothills Education Association, Assistant Superintendent Matt Gilbert, and Crystal Duguay, the director of the Western Foothills Regional Program, came to the podium during Monday’s board meeting to discuss the committee’s findings.

McGinty, among several others at the board meeting, noted that Duguay had done an “excellent job” as the committee’s facilitator, and he read a sentence that he wanted to draw attention to from the summary of the committee’s findings: “The committee underscores the critical importance of preventing harm to students, staff and the dysregulated child,” McGinty read.

He also said, “And now the question is: What do we do next to get this fixed?” He added that fixing the problem of dangerous student behavior should continue to be a group effort and that the district must prioritize it, “and make sure there’s no harm being done to students or staff.”

Following board members’ questions, Duguay explained that a dysregulated child is “essentially, a student who’s kind of lost control of their emotions and their ability to control themselves, both physically and emotionally,” and a life space room, sometimes called a time-out room, is a room “where kids can go, hopefully on their own, to calm down.”

Superintendent Deb Alden, who was also on the Behavior Committee, said that parents, students and others might be concerned when the schools “end up having to call outside help; which might come in the form of our school resource officer, or even an ambulance.

“It is disturbing and scary, but anytime we do any of that, we’re doing it in the sense of we want people to be safe, and we feel in those times we may need some of those services to keep everybody safe.”

She also said that the Behavior Committee’s work was a “great opportunity” to see how they could better use the information and techniques they already have and to think about what more training the staff and administrators need going forward.

Amy Bernard, the mother of a fourth-grade student at Meroby Elementary School in Mexico, spoke during the public comments period of the meeting, asking when the school board would have “action items” on the agenda regarding the Behavior Committee’s findings.

“When can we expect to see some action items, some policy in place so that my son doesn’t have to see his peers being removed from Meroby (Elementary School) via ambulance?” Bernard asked. “This is traumatic, and we were never informed this is going to happen,” Bernard said.

The RSU 10 board is meeting at MVHS on Monday, Nov. 4 at 6 p.m. to discuss and act on the next steps to move Mountain Valley Middle School students to in-person learning.

Crystal Duguay, the director of the Western Foothills Regional Program and the facilitator of the district’s Behavior Committee, speaks Oct. 28 about the committee’s findings at the Regional School Unit 10 board of directors meeting at Mountain Valley High School. Other committee members, from left, are Steve McGinty, one of the vice-presidents of the Western Foothills Education Association, and Matt Gilbert, the district’s assistant Superintendent. Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times