MEXICO — Following the school principals presenting their budget overviews to the RSU board on Feb. 11, Supt. Pam Doyen said they are getting closing in an initial total for the next school budget.

“We know going into a budget that there’s going to be an increase,” she said. “The board has to determine what type of increase are you comfortable asking the public for and then the administration team will go back and do the cuts that we need to do to come in where you think we need to be.”

Doyen said, “It’s always a lot of money. If you think about your household costs right now, you go to the grocery store, it costs a lot more. Same thing for us when we’re ordering supplies for our schools.”

She said that after the February vacation break, “I’ll have a more solid number to talk to the board about and then the board will say what we really need is for you to come in closer to, and your administrative has done this before, and we will work it and bring it back and say this is what we’re taking out.”

Doyen said, “Basically, what you’re hearing in these requests are not a lot of add-ons and they’re tiny. I know that costs have gone up everywhere. I don’t want anyone to think that we’re going to come in at a zero percent budget. That’s not even feasible when you think about contracts that we have that you know are going up each year and when you think about the cost of materials, they’re up.”

She said the administrative team has heard it before. “Come in with what you need and then we’re going to have to work from there. That’s what we’ll do.”

In other business, Dirigo Middle School Principal Jason Long introduced the school board to Alexis Holman, who was later approved as a new hire for sixth grade math and science at the middle school

He said Alexis “began working for us shortly after she graduated from high school, working for the summer program the elementary school, and then also working as a substitute for us. She very quickly established herself as one of the most reliable and insightful young people that we had working with the school, so naturally she went from a sub to being kind of a long-term sub, given really challenging assignments.”

Long said that after a few years of that, “there was an opportunity where because of an opening that we were unable to fill. Lexi stands before you a full emergency certification from the state of Maine and a plan to move that forward to a conditional and professional.”

He said, “She has been long-term subbing in this role this year and has been knocking it out of the park. She’s one of the strongest young teachers I’ve seen in my career so far and I’m really excited she’s going to be working with us.”

The board voted unanimously to approve that recommendation.

Accepted were the resignations of Michele Araujo and Danielle Williams as co-civil rights advisors at the middle school.

Jennifer Robbins-Barlow, elementary school Special Ed Ed Tech III, will resign at the end of the contract year.
Elementary school teacher Alan Tacheny will be retiring at the end of the school, after serving for 34 years.