March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Flanders Bay School Committee members OK tuition agreement for Boggy Brook students

EAST SULLIVAN — The Flanders Bay School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to accept a cooperative agreement that will allow vocational students to continue being tuitioned to the Boggy Brook Vocational School in Ellsworth.

Under state requirements, Ellsworth cannot charge tuition to sending school systems without their acceptance of the agreement.

In response to questions about job placement for graduates of Boggy Brook, Assistant Superintendent Harvey Kelley Jr. said that placement varied from program to program.

“The kids coming out of there do seem to have some pretty good skills,” he said. “Their food services program is exceptional. They have an excellent nurse’s aide program that has been very successful in placing its graduates.”

Margaret Faulkingham of Winter Harbor, a longtime advocate of vocational education, will serve on the newly formed advisory committee for the program. Brian Abbott of Franklin will be an alternate.

In the Union 96 School Committee meeting immediately following the Flanders meeting, Diana Young of Winter Harbor was elected chairman of the Search Committee. The committee is charged with finding a candidate to replace Superintendent Kent Webster, who has resigned to take a position in Thomaston.

Applications from four candidates have been received since an advertisement announcing the vacancy began running two weeks ago.

The superintendent’s office is investigating the possibility of running a regional special education program beginning in the fall.

“This year we have a number of youngsters due to come into kindergarten requiring some fairly extensive individualized special education services,” said Kelley.

The program is dependent on finding a teacher and adequate space, he said.

Union 96 currently tuitions two students to schools in Ellsworth and Bangor. Tuitioning to other districts is not particularly good for these pupils and a regional program may be a better alternative for the seven or eight primary level students anticipated for this fall, said Kelley.

“We need a way that is financially feasible and something that provides the best possible program for these kids,” he said. Transportation costs alone for the pupil going to Bangor are around $10,000, according to Kelley.

He is hoping to be able to locate the program at Mountainview School in Sullivan so that pupils will not have to be transported again to be mainstreamed there each day. An adequate program for the pupils includes daily instruction in both a special education classroom (resource room) and a regular classroom (mainstreaming).

A program at Mountainview is a possibility only if a teacher can be found and if space becomes available, said Kelley.

“We don’t have any final answers to give (these parents) yet because we’re still trying to look at all the best possibilities,” he said.

The school committee voted unanimously to accept the rough draft of an evaluation procedure that provides guidelines for assessing the performance of the superintendent.

Members of the Maine School Board Association met with the school committee earlier this year to answer their questions about the evaluation procedures used by other school systems in the state. From that meeting, the personnel committee began writing the procedures.

For the first time, the school committee will have a formal evaluation process, said John Mickel, chairman. The evaluation is tied to the superintendent’s job description and to the goals of a management-by-objectives plan.

The school committee will set yearly goals and ask the superintendent to do the same. Part of the evaluation will involve determining how he or she has accomplished those goals.

A policy committee, with Sarah Schoppe of Steuben serving as chairman, will begin the task of reviewing the hundreds of policies currently in effect in the school system.

“The essence of our boardsmanship is policies,” said Mickel. “That’s what we’re here for, to make the policies on which they run their school system.”

He said, and the board agreed, that having a policy committee would force the issue onto the agenda so that policies could be examined and changed on a regular basis as needed.

The next regular meeting of the Union 96 School Committee is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 21.


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