RANGELEY — At their regular meeting Tuesday, members of the RSU 78 School Board read a letter from a New Hampshire school district near Magalloway Township.
In an open letter to the board, Paul Bousquet, superintendent of New Hampshire’s Errol School District, wrote that several inquiries had been received from residents of Magalloway Township about children attending Errol Consolidated School.
The Errol School Board said it is open to the idea of receiving kindergarten through eighth-grade students from Maine and invited members of the Rangeley board to the next Errol meeting on Dec. 16.
Rangeley board member Tom Rideout of Magalloway said some residents of the township are concerned about the approximately 45-minute bus ride the younger students must take twice a day. The New Hampshire school is 10 miles from Magalloway.
The suggested switch would involve five of the township’s six students.
The board voted to send delegates, including Rideout and Superintendent Susan Pratt, to the Errol board meeting next week to gather information.
In other action, members of the School Board who attended the Maine School Boards Association’s annual conference reported on the discussions and programs they took part in.
Pratt and board members Joanne Chapman, Nancy Hilliard, Steve Dudley, Virginia Nuttall and Jennifer Farmer attended the conference, held in Augusta in October. Topics included the board’s role as employer, teacher effectiveness, teacher negotiations and running a successful board hearing.
Hilliard spoke of Common Core Curriculum proficiency and the necessity to keep communications open with the community during this period of transition. Nuttall described the WATCH DOGS (Dads of Great Students) program that invites fathers into the school, gets them into the classroom and provides them with things to do. Pratt said she attended the law conferences to download free legal advice.
The board voted to create a Building Committee to facilitate organization of high-need construction, maintenance and renovation projects, including those for science labs, purchase of the new two-room portable facility and creating ADA accessibility for the bathrooms, elevator and main entrance.
The new committee will include the current Facilities Committee and any interested staff, parents and community members. Pratt said the projects are all interconnected, leading to a permanent upgrade of the building. She estimated the project to be at least three years out, and the board voted to form the committee to start the process.
In other action, class advisor Kelsey Orestis brought an early request for preliminary approval of the eighth-grade trip to Quebec City, scheduled for three days next June. Orestis will be gone for maternity leave at the time and is finalizing as many plans as she can before her departure.
The board unanimously voted to support the trip, which has been an eighth-grade event for several years.
Pratt said the students are taking their grades more seriously and like monitoring them more frequently.
The special education program is working to do more mainstreaming, according to least restrictive environment guidelines, putting special ed students in regular classrooms for up to 80 percent of the day.
Principal Charles Brown reported on the middle school’s visit to the Maine State Museum and the State House in Augusta. He said grades two through five will attend Portland Stage’s production of “The Snow Queen” this week.
Student board member Tala Ferguson reported that the cheerleading team has six new girls, their first new uniforms in eight years and recently performed their first half-time show in two years.
The Poetry Out Loud program has started up again. And while the board was meeting, the Book Fair was having its holiday party in the library, with stories being read by Mrs. Claus.
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