Houlton Southside gets new principal

18 years ago

HOULTON, Maine — A new principal for Houlton Southside School was chosen last week in a special meeting of the SAD 29 Board of Directors.     Jason Tarr, a 1987 graduate of Southern Aroostook Community School, was chosen to lead the South Street school.

Currently the principal at Palermo Consolidated School, Tarr said in an interview Monday morning that he expects to be working in Houlton full-time by the end of October.

“I’m anxious to get started and to meet parents and students,” he said. “I’m hoping to be up there one day a week starting after harvest.”

Tarr graduated from the University of Maine at Presque Isle in 1992 with his bachelor’s degree and earned his master’s degree in 1998 from UMaine. He moved to Waldo County that same year and is in his fourth year at the kindergarten through grade 8 school.

Tarr said he and his wife had been thinking about moving back to the County, and the vacancy at Southside School seemed like a good opportunity to come home.

“We’re looking forward to having my son be able to be around his extended family,” he added.

Tarr replaces Jerry Kiesman who resigned in September after serving as principal since August 2004. Retired Houlton Elementary Principal Bob Cowperthwaite is serving as Southside principal in the interim.