SAD 1 approves hires and retirements,
looks to policy standards
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Presque Isle is saying goodbye to some SAD 1 staff, welcoming others, and following a few state and federal governance recommendations.
In the second meeting with new SAD 1 superintendent Brian Carpenter on Aug. 12, 2015, the board of directors approved two retirements and two new appointments.
Betty Ireland, a first-grade teacher at Pine Street Elementary School, is retiring after 18 years. Ireland is still in the midst of a cancer illness, and told the board in a statement that she is unable to continue working full-time. But Ireland would like to spend some time tutoring students one-on-one — a request approved by the board.
The board also accepted a resignation from Sherry Brown, SAD 1 technology director and a 13-year district veteran who oversaw the new program equipping Presque Isle High School students with iPads. “I feel very comfortable leaving the district with the best technology around,” Brown said in a statement read to the board.
In new staff, the board approved the hiring of Julie Stephenson, a University of Maine-Augusta graduate and resident of Washburn, as a library media specialist at the Presque Isle Middle School.
Denise Bosse was also approved as the district’s director of special education. Bosse has spent 28 years working in special education, most recently in Caribou.
A couple of open positions remain, too: a combined pre-kindergarten and fourth-grade teacher position and a special education life skills technician at the high school.
In other matters, the board approved fuel bids from the Dead River Company and approved setting new policies for expense and tuition authorization and reimbursement and purchase and contracting code of conduct.
The standards are not really new, said Clinton Deschene, SAD 1 assistant superintendent for business. The district is largely following the principles already and passed a recent state audit. But the new policies are an attempt to formally codify policies, such as conflict of interest prevention in bidding, per recommendations by the state and federal government, Deschene said.
A new policy committee will be vetting various practices and policies to see if other standardization is needed.
The board also welcomed teachers and district staff to a free compensation negotiation workshop that will be hosted by the Maine School Management Association at the high school on Sept. 28