RUMFORD — Regional School Unit 10 Superintendent Deb Alden will be getting a 3% raise in next year’s contract, the board of directors agreed after an hourlong executive session Jan. 27.

Deb Alden

Board Chair Greg Buccina said the motion, approved 8-1, also included following up with Alden on some of the board recommendations for improvement.

Buccina said he, Daniel Hodge, Ed Bulger, Allison Long, Bonnie Child, Vice Chair Chad Culleton, Erin Hinkley and Peter DeFilipp voted in favor, with Darcie Klein opposed.

Business Manager Leah Kaulback said Alden’s salary is $136,636.55. With the 3% increase of $4,099.10, it will be $140,735.65.

Alden has served as superintendent of schools for RSU 10 since November 2016. Her contract will expire June 30, 2026.

After another executive session, the board approved Mark Thibodeau as principal of Meroby Elementary School in Mexico for rest of the school year. He is assistant principal there and is certified as a principal.

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Jodi Ellis was principal of Meroby and Rumford Elementary School. She will remain principal of Rumford. 

Alden said the $10,000 annual stipend for Thibodeau as principal will be prorated by pay period until Meroby students and staff move into the $92 million Mountain Valley Community School, which is under construction on Highland Avenue in Mexico.

The district is slated to open the new K-8 school in early 2026, eliminating Mountain Valley Middle School in Mexico and Rumford and Meroby elementary schools. It will serve more than 1,000 students.

Middle School students switched to online learning Oct. 15, 2024, after the building was closed Oct. 8 due to air quality tests showing high levels of mold.

The seventh and eighth graders made up the smallest group of students at the school, which includes 366 in grades five through eight.

Regarding work on the seventh and eighth grade classroom space in the former bus garage at Mountain Valley High School in Rumford, Alden said they are changing the bathroom situation to male and female with a different bathroom designated as gender neutral, and will be exploring additional bathrooms that could be made available.

She said the lockers in a different part of the school will be taken out and installed during February vacation. Also, workers will be exploring using a “curtain” to hang between the upper part of the partitions between the classrooms, and the use of the fitness room for one of the classrooms.

“I agree that it’s not the best place for learning,” Alden said. “Unfortunately, that’s the area we had that wasn’t being used for other people’s classrooms here in the high school.”

The board additionally approved transferring Alyssa Crews from grade five writing teacher at Rumford Elementary School to grade seven math teacher at Mountain Valley Middle School, and Lee Farrar from interim head custodian at Meroby Elementary School to bus driver/custodian at Mountain Valley Middle School.

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