RUMFORD — Students moving into Mountain Valley Community School in early 2026 will have half-days for six Fridays starting Oct. 31, the Regional School Unit 10 board of directors decided Sept. 22.

The early release Fridays will provide teachers and staff dedicated time to pack, plan and prepare.

“Keep in mind, all the schools will have to do (early release) because of busing,” Regional School Unit 10 Superintendent Deb Alden said.

The school will accommodate about 1,000 students who attend Rumford Elementary School, Meroby Elementary School in Mexico and Mountain Valley Middle School, also in Mexico.

The board previously favored having K-8 students in the Mountain Valley Region go to remote learning for a week and then no school for a week. However, at last week’s meeting, the board shifted support to half-days on Friday instead.

Alden said Mountain Valley Community School architects Landry-French agreed that the district could tentatively plan for a three-week move-in schedule.

Week 1: Grade 6-8 transitions. Students in these grades will not have school this week.

Week 2: Meroby Elementary School transitions. Students in these grades will not have school this week.

Week 3: Rumford Elementary School transitions. Students in these grades will not have school this week.

In a letter to parents, the district did not say when the move-in dates would be, but said they would be in December and January.

“So last year, because of money for the budget, we requested to the state department of ed for five less school days for each of the three school buildings,” Alden said. “Because if not, we would have had to come up with five additional days to pay staff.”

Among the complications with having the children learn remotely, Alden said, was that they discovered the state would not reimburse the district for “remote meals” — meaning the district would lose between $16,000 and $20,000.

Alden said she verified this with the state Department of Education, “that those days going remote will not count if we don’t feed the kids.”

She said the half day will count for reimbursement as long the students are fed lunch.

With the early release option, she said, “We’d let school out at noon or when we do for a half day, and that would give the teachers in those three buildings time without kids to work on getting their stuff together.”

“It would just be that one week of no school and no remote week, and it’s not costing us $16,000 to $20,000,” Vice Chairman Chad Culleton said.

Board member Allison Long said she was excited to avoid the remote learning option.

“These kids have had so much remote learning and so much time out of school anyway. This is much better,” Long said. “I still don’t even like the six days, but I understand there’s a lot of work to do.”

Jen LeDuc asked if it was possible to have Rumford and Meroby schools move in at the same time, so all first graders start on the same day, and Alden said the simple answer was no.

“So, you’d have two buildings both going partially and two buildings have partial move in,” Alden said. “Because our first graders are not all in one building, then in order to move in a full grade, you’d have to take some kids from two different places, and leave some kids in two different places. You’d have to have two buildings still going instead of one building going.”

Alden said when she brought that idea up at a meeting with contractors at Landry-French and everyone working on the building, they said it was not a good idea.

“They said you should not have more than one building moving to one building at the same time,” Alden said.

Culleton said, “It’s a lot easier to find coverage for an early release on a Friday than it is for a whole week of trying to find child care for your kids.”

Alden said they have a quote of $144,000 for the equipment and installation of the playground at the Mountain Valley Community School.

“That was what the playground committee put out to bid. MDOE (Maine Department of Education) has agreed to pay for $108,000 of it,” she said.

Alden noted, “We need to raise the remaining $36,000. We have $10,000, so I have every reason to believe we’ll be able to make up that difference in a timely fashion.”