RUMFORD — Longtime local administrator Matt Gilbert will be the next superintendent of Regional School Unit 10 based in Rumford.

Serving as assistant superintendent for the district since July 2022, he will begin his new role July 1 with the retirement of Deb Alden, who is leaving after 44 years in education. She has been tsuperintendent since November 2016.

Following an executive session March 23, the board of directors voted unanimously to sign Gilbert to a three-year contract for $145,000 per year.

Gilbert, 53, has spent most of his 26 years in education in the district, including as principal of Mountain Valley High School in Rumford from 2005 until October of 2021.

He said he would never have thought it would pass so quickly.

“I just find a ton of meaning in it. And because it’s meaningful and purposeful, it allows me to sink right into it and focus on the work, as opposed to the days,” he said. “And I think that’s what makes it fly be so fast.”

Gilbert said he believes his approach has matched well with the communities.

“I try to be as direct as possible. I like to make sure that everybody knows what’s going on,” he said. “My experience is that people in RSU 10 really appreciate that because it’s not always good news that I have to deliver. I think that gives them (school board) the confidence of knowing who they’re hiring. That eliminates one big variable when you’re making the transition from one superintendent to another. That’s pretty important for the whole district right now.”

Gilbert lives in Livermore, “which is a great location for this job because I’m 30 minutes to Buckfield and 35 minutes to Rumford, so it’s well situated to get to both regions.”

Gilbert said a big part of his first year in the new role will involve whether the Nezinscot Region towns of Buckfield, Hartford and Sumner decide on June 9 to have a vote in November to withdraw from RSU 10.

“What I’m going to be focused on is identifying what our values are as a district, and how do we move forward as a district, no matter what the configuration is,” he said. “That’s going to be a big part of that job, really trying to get people to get back to understanding what our purpose is, as a district.”

Gilbert said he’d like to give Buckfield, Hartford and Sumner as much information as possible so they can make the best decision they can.

“If we do this in a healthy way, this is really going to be like a good audit of what we do to make the most of what we have for our kids,” he said.

“Whatever way their final vote goes, we should still be able to walk away with ‘how do we make this better for kids.’ What are we doing well and what do we need to improve on?” he added. “In the end, when it’s all said and done, I hope that we can get to that point as a district, to make it better.”

In January, Gilbert was among the staff greeting students entering the new Mountain Valley Community School in Mexico. But his greeting stood out: he played a bit on his guitar as the kids walked though. “It showed a little bit of the human side of me,” he said.

He said he always wanted to be an educator.

“That’s probably the gift that my mother gave me — a passion for education. She was an educator all of her life, so that was something I always wanted to do,” he said. “And making sure it was in western Maine. To me, it’s important because in western Maine, public education is still a powerful tool to help lead toward success.”

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