DIXFIELD — The RSU 10 board this week approved a change in the structure of stipend positions and learned that many events normally held at Mountain Valley High School will be moved due to the leaking roof.
Directors also set a special session to continue work on a 2014-15 budget.
An ad hoc committee began meeting to identify better methods for assisting professional development in connection with the district’s late-start Wednesdays last year, Superintendent Craig King said.
As a result, a recommendation was made this week to reconfigure teacher-leader positions, which he said will decrease the stipends for the positions by about $18,000.
The board approved a job description for 18 teacher leaders.
“This will be a pilot year,” King said.
Teacher leaders will assist their colleagues with instructional resources, model best instructional practices, and keep abreast of current trends in curriculum and instruction and share that information with other teachers. They will also review school data and contribute to the promotion of a culture of continuous improvement.
All continuing-contract teachers are invited to apply and will be interviewed, King said.
The new system will be evaluated in March 2015.
Mountain Valley High School Principal Matt Gilbert and Buildings and Grounds Director Kenny Robbins told the board that an architectural team is evaluating the school roof and are waiting to get on the roof for further analysis. Robbins said there is still 5 feet of snow in places.
“There’s not much we can do until the temperature warms up,” he said. As soon as possible, the accumulated ice will be removed, he said.
He also said the district’s insurance company has inspected the resulting damage, but no figure has been submitted.
Meanwhile, many areas of the school use scores of buckets to catch the water coming in.
“We keep trying to figure out where the next leak will be,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert said other gyms and stages will be used for some of the high school’s planned events, including Mountain Valley Middle School for a motivational presentation by John Jenkins on April 3; the Rumford Falls Auditorium for the school’s annual spring musical, “Little Shop of Horrors,” on April 10, 11 and 12; an as-yet unspecified gym for the annual basketball tournament; and many other previously planned events.
Of concern, Gilbert said, are the graduation activities that generally take place in Muskie Auditorium. That situation will be assessed at a later date.
King said that after meeting with faculty last week, “I’m very impressed with how they are able to conduct business.”
In other matters:
* A special budget workshop session was set for 6:30 p.m. March 31 in the high school library.
* The Buckfield Junior-Senior High School senior class trip to Boston on April 23-26 was approved.
* The annual trip to the Shrine Circus in Lewiston was approved for all fifth-graders on April 19.
* Hartford-Sumner Elementary School kindergarten teacher Jessica Black was granted a one-year sabbatical to earn a master’s degree.
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