DYER BROOK, Maine — When it comes to tough educational decisions, new RSU 50 Superintendent Todd LeRoy is no stranger to the challenges they present.
LeRoy most recently served as the superintendent for SAD 59 in Madison, where he helped guide the district through a number of changes, including the withdrawal of three communities from that district. He also had to work through a major devaluation in property value and lost revenue following the closure of the Madison paper mill.
“I spent the last five years in Madison, and, as superintendent, it was very difficult to make decisions that everyone is going to be happy with,” LeRoy said. “You make some moves that people don’t like, and your board membership changes, and it can become very difficult to work and get things accomplished.”
LeRoy said he told his two board chairmen in Madison that he felt the time was right for him to move on, despite overcoming a number of challenges in that district.
“I have nothing but positive things to say about that school district,” he said. “We accomplished a great deal during my time there.”
LeRoy said he was most proud of the fact that Madison progressed from being named to one of the state’s “low achieving schools” to making the U.S. News and World Report’s list of highest achieving schools in the state. Madison was ranked 15th in the state for 2016.
Prior to his work in the Madison school district, he was the superintendent of schools at Madawaska School Department. Before that, he was a principal in Wisconsin.
LeRoy said he came to Maine on “an adventure with my dog” and fell in love with the state. “Now, I don’t ever want to leave the state,” he said.
RSU 50 faces a number of challenges, including the withdrawal of several communities from the school district. Mt. Chase, Sherman, Patten, Stacyville, Moro and Hersey have all voted to explore withdrawing from the district.
“Every school system that I have worked at needed help,” LeRoy said. “They needed help finding function where there was disfunction. It seems to be my niche. I feel very confident that we can solve the issues that we have here and do more.”
He said the district, and its surrounding towns, need to take full advantage of the natural assets in the area, such as Mt. Katahdin and Baxter State Park.
“We have a mountain and one of the most beautiful parks in the world right here in your backyard,” he said. “We have some great lakes. In my mind, this is the most beautiful part of the country that I have ever seen and we need to take advantage of that. We need to try draw people here based on those assets.”
Instead of focusing on the negative side of declining enrollment, LeRoy said the district should be more proactive.
“If you focus too much on declining enrollment, you will continue to decline until you become so small that you dry up and blow away,” he said. “I don’t want to see that happen here. I want to find a way to bring students and families to this area.”
