AUBURN — The School Committee on Wednesday honored former City Councilor Alfreda Fournier, who died last week.
Fournier had served as Androscoggin County commissioner before taking a spot on the City Council where she served from 2019 to 2021. She died Friday at the age of 75.
The committee remembered Fournier in a moment of silence, honoring her “outstanding dedication to this community.”
“If you were fortunate enough to know Alfreda,” said Committee Chairwoman Karen Mathieu, “then you were a blessed human being.”
School Department Business Manager Mark Conrad briefed the committee on the efforts to evaluate and remediate water fixtures in city schools after 57 out of 115 faucets at Edward Little High School were found to have lead levels above the state’s recommended threshold.
Water samples from each Auburn school have been submitted to the state for testing, Conrad said. All Maine schools are required by law to regularly test their water for lead following the passage of a 2019 bill. Schools have until the end of the year to submit water samples for testing.
The committee also officially welcomed Ben Wilson as the new principal of Auburn Middle School. He started July 1.
Also honored Wednesday night was Chris Piercey, director of nutrition for Auburn schools. Piercey accepted the Local Seafood Spirits Award.
“You have done some outstanding things for the nutrition department,” said Mathieu. “So from the bottom of our hearts, we absolutely thank you.”
Piercey came aboard as nutrition manager just before the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. Auburn schools began sourcing fresh fish from the Portland Fish Exchange last fall. Previously, they had only offered preprepared frozen fish such as fish sticks. This year, Auburn schools served about 600 pounds of fresh fish, school officials said.
The committee also passed a motion to award a contract for repairs to and painting of the exterior of Washburn Elementary School.
The committee retired to executive session about 6:30 p.m. to discuss evaluation of the superintendent. That session was still going by 9 p.m.
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