PI dropped from Warriors’ schedule
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — Presque Isle High School will be looking for another team to play in 2013-14 as Fort Kent has notified school officials that they will be dropped from the Warriors’ schedule.
“Fort Kent has been on our sports schedule for over 50 years, but has recently officially notified us they’re dropping us,” said SAD 1 Superintendent Gehrig Johnson at the Aug. 8 board meeting. “Starting next year, we will not be playing Fort Kent in team sports. Their decision causes some issues for us.
“They are currently a Class C team we play during the week. Most of our other games are on Saturdays in the Bangor area. We will now be in the position of finding another school that will play us and that school is probably going to be located south of Bangor,” Johnson said. “We’ll be faced with the issue of mid-week games or Friday night/Saturday doubleheaders in the Bangor area, plus there’s a financial impact, as well.”
Johnson told directors that Fort Kent’s reason for dropping Presque Isle is because they feel they are “no longer competitive with our program.”
Affected programs are PIHS girls and boys soccer, baseball, softball and girls and boys basketball.
At the board meeting, directors were also given an update on progress of the agreement the district has with Xi’an Siyuan High School in China. In May, an agreement was signed that will allow up to 50 Chinese students per year to take PIHS courses at Xi’an Siyuan High School.
“They’re still in the process of putting the program together,” said Johnson. “We’re ready to go with the commitment that we made and are now waiting to hear from them. The Chinese students will be enrolled for each of the next three years at Xi’an Siyuan High School and will take PIHS courses while they also participate in their own program. They’ll be working toward a dual high school degree — Chinese and American.
“We’ll be delivering a basic core curriculum. They will likely begin with English, health and world history,” he said. “Many of the classes that the Chinese students currently take like physical education, for example, we would accept for credit.”
Recognizing that there will also be the opportunity for some PIHS students to attend Xi’an Siyuan High School as the program develops, SAD 1 had hoped to hire an instructor to teach a basic Mandarin Chinese course, but was unsuccessful in filling the position.
“We had a full class enrolled,” said Johnson, “but we were unsuccessful in locating a Chinese teacher. We placed an ad in the local newspapers and used our contacts at the university level, but couldn’t locate a teacher. Once we do, we’ll offer the course.”
Also at the August meeting, directors:
• Approved Kristi Stoutamyer as a part-time pre-K teacher at Mapleton Elementary School and Sara Martin-Donahue as a special education teacher at Presque Isle Middle School.
• Increased the price of the School Nutrition Program lunches by 10 cents. Elementary lunches will now cost $2, while students at the middle/high school will pay $2.40 per meal.
Kathy Allen, director of the SAD 1 School Nutrition Program, said the increase is due to changes in food regulations that call for additional grains, fruits and vegetables.
• Awarded fuel bids to the following businesses: unleaded gasoline to R.H. Foster Energy, kerosene to Dead River Co., #2 fuel oil to Dead River Co. (small truck margin) and Daigle Oil Co. (transport margin) and diesel fuel to Daigle Oil.
The next regular school board meeting will be held Wednesday, Sept. 12 at 5 p.m. at the school farm.
