HODGDON, Maine — It is back to the drawing board for SAD 70 in the district’s search for a new superintendent.
The SAD 70 school board learned at its Oct. 15 meeting that the search committee had interviewed three candidates for the vacant superintendent position, but was not comfortable choosing any of the three individuals.
Clayton Belanger has been serving as the interim superintendent since the start of the school year. Bob McDaniel, the previous superintendent, resigned at the end of the 2012-13 school year. Belanger works two days a week in the district and is paid $250 per day, plus $80 in mileage for his services.
“There wasn’t one candidate that we all agreed upon and were ready to hire,” said board chairman Estela Lane.
“It wasn’t that the applicants were not qualified,” added vice chairman Tracy Rockwell.
The interview committee, which is comprised of eight individuals representing board members and school administrators, was divided on the applicants.
The district will begin the search anew by re-advertising the position, starting Nov. 1. The application deadline will be Nov. 29, with the search committee reviewing those applications starting Dec. 6. Lane said, at this stage, the district was essentially looking at a July 1, 2014 start date for its next superintendent.
Belanger has agreed to remain with the district as its interim superintendent
The board also learned its food services account is severely overdrawn due to poor bookkeeping practices from the previous year. Belanger said he discovered the district has about a $14,000 deficit to its school lunch program when calculating revenues for September.
According to Belanger, the beginning checkbook balance didn’t match the state’s figures. Belanger said by the end of the school year, the district would likely need to come up with extra funds to cover the shortfall. Exactly how the district would come up with those funds, however, was not discussed.
In other agenda items, the board:
• Listened to a presentation from Bernadette Willette, the district’s guidance counselor, on upcoming changes to the educational system as a result of the shift to proficiency based learning standards.
• Hired Sharyn Walker as its new choral music teacher.
• Granted an employee’s request for time off without pay for Carla Harrison.
• Tabled action on a new dress code policy for the school staff.
• Welcomed new board member Mark Ganzel of Linneus. Ganzel replaces Meg York-Scott who resigned from the board after moving outside of the town she represented. The board still has one vacancy, a seat from New Limerick.
The next regular meeting is slated for Tuesday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. due to the Veteran’s Day holiday.
