Doe bids adieu to SAD 25

by Staff Pioneer Times
15 years ago

Bates named interim superintendent
ImageJohn Doe
By Elna Seabrooks
Staff Writer
    STACYVILLE — After 37 years as an educator, SAD 25 Superintendent John Doe retired from his post and acknowledged that he will miss the children. “My office is in the elementary school,” he sad on his last day. “The kids stop and say ‘hello’ and it’s really great to see them and have that contact with them,” Doe added.
    As he reflected on some of the school’s accomplishments over the years, he cited an all-day kindergarten, an elementary library with a certified elementary librarian, a three-year reading literacy grant, an after-school program and an elementary guidance counselor. Doe explained that “the federal Reading First grant obtained through the hard work of (Christine Cunningham) the elementary school principal, had made a big difference in the children’s reading scores.”
    Although Doe, who resides in East Millinocket, said he intends to do things around the house, go camping and just relax at first, he acknowledges that he, like many retirees, may end up even busier than he was before he retired.
    Doe’s career and positions started in Dover Foxcroft and spanned from Medway to East Millinocket before the last seven years he spent as superintendent of SAD 25.
    Now that several retirements in the area have left something of a void in the upper echelon of the school system, Doe attributes the shortage of superintendents statewide “probably due to our age and that time in our careers.”
    As of July 1, Rae Bates, Katahdin High School principal, is the interim superintendent for SAD 25. She said she has enjoyed working with Doe over the past seven years. She added that she is getting ready for an August meeting when she expects the school board to proceed with a decision on the superintendent vacancy.
    Bates also said paperwork regarding the reorganization plan for SAD 25, CSD 9, Hersey and Moro Plantation to become a Regional School Unit has been sent into Augusta with a hope that it will be approved in time for voters to make a decision during the November election.