By Lisa Wilcox
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — After hearing numerous public comments regarding the proposed 2013-14 school budget, the Eastern Aroostook RSU 39 board attended to regular agenda items at their May 1 meeting, beginning with discussion of possibly adopting a common calendar for grades K through 12.
Superintendent Frank McElwain gave the board drafts of a proposed common calendar, which would have all grades go into session at the same time with a two-week harvest break for all, and the traditional calendar, which has school begin two weeks earlier for grades 9 through 12 to accommodate for a harvest break that the remainder of the grades would not get.
Board member Kent Forbes believed that further discussion was needed in order to change the calendar to the common version. Due to time constraints in getting the calendar out to parents, Forbes suggested that the board approve the traditional calendar for this year and discuss which is the better option for the 2014-15 school year.
Stockholm’s board representative John Sjostedt countered that he felt they should approve the common calendar now to take advantage of the estimated $20,000 in savings the common calendar could provide.
After some discussion, the board voted to approve the traditional calendar for this year with all members but Sjostedt in favor.
Monetary issues continued to take the forefront of the meeting with Business Manager Karen Nadeau reviewing the RSU’s third-quarter financial report and McElwain explaining the proposed 2013-14 budget to board members. The board unanimously approved the budget, which will now be presented at a public meeting at Caribou Middle School on May 29 and will then go to referendum vote for the RSU communities of Caribou, Limestone and Stockholm on June 11.
The subject of staffing was then addressed with the board unanimously approving a proposal to increase the vocational food services instructor position to full-time and electing second- and third-year probationary teachers as follows.
Second-year probation: Amanda Brooker, physical education and health, Limestone Community School and Teague Park; Elizabeth Durepo, life skills, the Learning Center; Cheryl Hallowell, grade 2, Hilltop Elementary School; Arik Jepson, grade 8, Caribou Middle School; Lori Knight-Phair, grade 8, CMS; Eric McGough, special education, LCS; Ryan O’Neal, grade 2, LCS; Erica Raymond, alternative education, the Learning Center; and Emily Rosser, grade 1, LCS.
Third-year probation: Rachel McGinn, grade 2, LCS; James Mezynski, science, Caribou High School; Andrew Sullivan, strings, Caribou schools.
McElwain advised of the following resignations and new hires.
Resignations: Dustin Damboise, JV softball coach, CHS; Paula Judge, ed tech, Teague Park; Mike Bouchard, custodian, Caribou Technology Center; Leona Michaud, middle level teacher, LCS; Tom Hale, agriculture instructor, Caribou Technology Center; Cheryl Martin, teacher, Hilltop.
New Hires: Justin Cross, volunteer baseball coach, LCS; Kyle Corrigan, JV softball coach, CHS.
McElwain then provided the board with copies report cards that the LePage administration issued to all Maine schools, ranking their performance. The report cards had just been issued on that day. All Caribou schools, except for Hilltop and the Learning Center, which were not ranked, came in with a C grade and LCS was given an F.
“Whether it’s average or below average, that is certainly not what we aspire to do,” McElwain said. “We will reflect on this and see what kinds of things we need to do to improve.”
McElwain then advised the board that the RSU had been awarded a $5,000 grant from the Homeland Security Grant Program, funded by the Maine Emergency Management Agency. The funds were awarded to install a camera entry system at CHS, in which all doors will be locked and a camera installed at the main entrance so that when a visitor comes to the door, they can be identified and let in as deemed appropriate.
In his continuing effort to keep the board updated on the progress of learner centered standards based education, McElwain then updated members on a meeting of the Northern Maine Educational Collaborative held at UMPI to help facilitate with the implementation of the new learning system.
The meeting ended with administrators from Teague Park School, Caribou Middle School, Hilltop Elementary School and Limestone Community School updating the board on recent activities at their schools.
The next RSU 39 school board meeting will be this evening at the Superintendent’s Office in Caribou at 7 p.m.
