MADAWASKA – The school committee Wednesday night approved the efforts of the department’s superintendent and extended his contract through June 30, 2007, with an increase in salary of $2,500 a year starting July 1, 2005.

Danny R.P. Michaud started work in Madawaska last July 1. He was hired in April to replace Timothy Doak.

The unanimous action on Michaud’s contract came with little discussion after a one-hour executive session Wednesday night.

When Michaud was hired, he was given a salary of $79,900.

“The School Committee unanimously supports the efforts of Dr. Danny R.P. Michaud on its behalf,” School Committee Chairman Brian Thibeault wrote in a prepared statement released Thursday afternoon. “The School Committee has provided him with a direction in where we would like to see the Madawaska School Department in the near and distant future and he is taking us there.”

Michaud, a native of St. Agatha, is a graduate of the University of Maine at Fort Kent. He came to Madawaska after being superintendent in Union 104 at Eastport and was superintendent of SAD 43 for eight years before that.

He has also taught school and was the principal in SAD 24 of Van Buren, East Millinocket and Rumford.