SAD 29 hires new administrator, agrees to RPC plan

By Ben Austin
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — A special SAD 29 meeting was held Monday night to discuss two very important issues before their respective deadlines this week.
    The first item on the original agenda was the issue of school regionalization, or consolidation. The second issue on the same agenda was the proposed hiring of David Minzy, of Fort Kent, as the new assistant principal at Houlton High School.
    At the meeting, following the pledge of allegiance, vice chairman Glen Miller announced that a change had been made to the agenda and that the board members would start the meeting in executive session to discuss employment-related issues.
    “In this situation there were some questions that folks wanted to dialogue about, about personnel, prior to making any decisions about personnel. While it’s understandable that people would question ‘well you didn’t have it on the agenda’, that could happen at anytime, because the first and foremost responsibility of a board and in its meeting is to protect the rights of individuals whose identity may come up in such a scenario,” said Superintendent Steve Fitzpatrick.
    After a 45-minute executive session, the board once again opened the meeting to the public. According to Fitzpatrick, the discussion of this matter centered around the negative impact that consolidation would have on SAD 29 financially.
    After discussing the issue for a matter of minutes, the board unanimously voted to send their approval of the regionalization plan to the state board.
    Both SAD 70, in Hodgdon, and CSD 9, in Dyer Brook, voted on the same issue Monday night. Both of these districts were somewhat hesitant to approve the plan. Both districts did pass the proposal, but neither did so unanimously.
    “There is always a fear of loss of identity, from the perspective of smaller districts, especially if they are engaged in dialogue with a larger district. It’s the big fish in a little pond. Their concern is that they are going to be swallowed up, and they are going to lose their identity. Legitimate or not, it is real, according to their perspective,” stated Fitzpatrick.
    Next, the board repeated the same process, this time having very little public discussion, then voting unanimously, this time to hire Minzy, a former Hodgdon administrator, as the assistant principal at Houlton High.
    “The board’s decision was to uphold their superintendent’s nomination predicated upon the interview committee’s full endorsement of this candidate, so I feel it was a good decision. The board demonstrated that they respected their process in terms of the interview and screening committee and the process was followed through to fruition and I think that they supported the recommendation of the committee and so did I,” explained Fitzpatrick.
    Minzy, who has worked in Hodgdon for four years, may not join the administration at Houlton High full time until the end of September. Due to his late decision to change districts Minzy is expected to continue working in SAD 70 until they are able to find someone to fill his position. In his contract, it is stated that Minzy could be held to working 45 days at Hodgdon High, according to Houlton High School Principal Marty Bouchard, who is looking forward to working with his new colleague.
    “I think he’ll be here some days and some days he won’t. I think you’ll see him on and off here for the next two weeks. I’m excited, he has experience working in the area of the assistant principal’s role. He has done that before and proven successful. He has worked in numerous capacities and comes highly recommended from [Hodgdon]. He’s a real personal guy, a student-centered guy, and I think he will be a good addition to our school.”