Benoit takes helm at East Grand

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    DANFORTH — Three months into his new role as the East Grand school principal and Rick Benoit is already feeling right at home.
    Benoit took over as the principal at East Grand School at the start of the school year, replacing both David Apgar and Louise Latvis. Apgar was the high school principal in Danforth, while Latvis served as the elementary principal.
    A native of Brunswick, Benoit was a middle school social studies teacher at Oxford Hills in South Paris for the past 18 years prior to coming to Danforth. In South Paris, he also served as an assistant athletic director. He also taught some alternative education and science classes.
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Joseph Cyr
COME INTO MY OFFICE — Rick Benoit is the new principal at East Grand school in Danforth. He took over the post at the start of the school year.
    Becoming a principal has long been a career goal for Benoit, but he thought he would first have to pay his dues as an assistant principal or athletic director.
    Carlene Treadwell, a guidance councilor at Oxford Hills, is a native of Danforth and informed Benoit that the district was looking for a new principal. She encouraged him to apply for the position.
    “I have found everyone who has gone to school here (at East Grand) is very proud of their school and community,” Benoit said. “She really encouraged me to apply because she knew I was interested in becoming a principal. I always envisioned that I would have to work my way up. But it was always a career goal of mine to become a principal.”
    The geographic change was one of the biggest variations for Benoit, as he had not been to the area prior to the job. An avid outdoorsmen, Benoit immediately fell in love with the Danforth area.
    “Every aspect of the change has been positive,” he said. “I love that it’s a smaller school. I like that I have pre-K through 12th grade all in one building. That gives me a great deal of variety throughout the day. It’s been a huge change, but it’s also exciting.”
    Both Apgar and Latvis are still in the building, as both remained at East Grand, switching to other roles at the school. Apgar is now a science teacher, while Latvis is the special education director. Having both former principals readily available has helped ease the transition, Benoit said.
    “I’m very lucky to have the two former principals in the building should I ever need to ask them a question,” he said.
    One of the bigger adversities has been getting to know the families in the community, Benoit said.
    “It’s a challenge trying to get to know everyone, but there is also some benefit to that,” he explained. “I don’t have any preconceived relationships with anyone, so it’s a fresh start for all of us.”
    East Grand has 167 students in grades pre-K through 12. There are 17 teachers, including special education.
    Among Benoit’s goals for the year are rebuilding the bond between the school and the community.
    “The school is very important to the community, just as the community is very important to our school,” he said. “I think there may have been some division in the past among certain groups or individual personalities. I want to bring us all back together.”
    Working to better educate the students is another obvious goal for the district, Benoit said.
    “Over the summer, we were identified as a CIPS (Continuous Improvement Priority School) for math,” Benoit said. “That doesn’t mean we scored low, it means we didn’t make enough progress for improvement from one year to the next.”
    Two years ago, the district showed it was lacking in high school math. It could have been protected from the CIPS status by being placed on the “Safe Harbor” list, but failed to meet the required graduation rate. Last year, it was elementary math that the district struggled with and again failed to make the “Safe Harbor” exemption, this time due to low attendance rates.
    “It was kind of a perfect storm of events,” Benoit said. “If we were a larger district, the elementary school would be separate from the high school and we would not have failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). The state looks at us as one unit because we are all located in one building.”
    Benoit said the personal contact he is able to have with each student in the school has been refreshing.
    “I love that I can walk through the building and virtually say ‘hi’ to every single kid in school every day,” he said. “Being able to attend to the individual student needs is another amazing aspect of this district.”
    In his spare time, Benoit said he enjoys hunting and fishing. His wife, Danette, and daughter, Alexandria, are currently living in South Paris. He also has an adult stepson, Dylan, who attends Central Maine Community College.