Harvest recess comes to an end in SAD 70

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    HODGDON — Harvest recess is now nothing but a fond memory for students in southern Aroostook County.
    The SAD 70 (Amity, Cary, Haynesville, Hodgdon, Linneus, Ludlow and New Limerick) school board approved a 2012-13 calendar Monday evening that does not include the tradition harvest recess. SAD 29 (Houlton, Littleton, Monticello and Hammond) also chose not to break for harvest next year.
    Those two districts were the final two in the Region Two system that still had harvest break. East Grand in Danforth and RSU 50, which includes Southern Aroostook Community School and Katahdin, did away with harvest recess several years ago.
    “I hate to see it happen, but the time has come,” said board member Tom Horton.
    Vice chairman Joel Oliver, who is a potato farmer, opposed the measure but did not try to sway his fellow board members into keeping the recess.
    Next year, school will open on Sept. 5 and get out on June 12. In comparison, the district’s first day of school in the current school year was Aug. 24 and the final student day is June 11.
    Historically, the district has allowed students 10 extra days off to coincide with the harvest break, provided they were working in a harvest related job and maintained an acceptable grade level. The district will continue to allow students 10 days off to work in the harvest, or any other agricultural-related field on a case-by-case basis.
    The board also received an update on the Ludlow withdrawal committee by board member Dave Stevens, who is also a member of that committee and represents the town of Ludlow. The committee was formed May 5, with Virginia McCain named as the chairman. Other committee members are Stevens, Michelle Barrows and Leanne Hemingway.
    At a May 9 committee meeting, Stevens said the decision was made not to put the withdrawal process on the fast track.
    “We basically set up our housekeeping rules,” Stevens said. “There was some pressure to get it (withdrawal) done and pressure not to get it done. We decided we were not going to be pushed into anything.”
    Stevens added there were no plans to have the withdrawal plans in place for the next school year because of the sheer volume of data that needed to be collected.
    The committee meets again Tuesday, May 22 at 5 p.m. at the Ludlow Town Office. That meeting is open to the public. Should the committee find that withdrawing is not in the best interests of Ludlow, it cannot stop the process. A referendum vote would still need to be held.
    Several members of the audience expressed an interest in speaking to the school board on the topic. Those members were not allowed to speak as the board only allows comments at the beginning of its meetings during the “public comment” portion of the meeting.
    In other agenda items, the board:
    • Gave its approval to allow Superintendent Bob McDaniel to explore the feasibility of taking over the Orient bus run from the town of Orient.
    • Named Lura Griffin as its new science teacher following the retirement of Malcolm Nesbitt.
    • Named Mike Varney and Dave Grant as varsity softball and golf coaches respectively.
    • Approved a memorandum of agreement with SAD 29 for the Adult Education program.
    • Accepted the retirement/resignation notices of Beth Moore and Jane York, effective at the end of the school year.
    The next regular meeting of the SAD 70 school board is Monday, June 11 at 7 p.m.