Union 69 offers contract for chief

HOPE – The School Union 69 school committee announced Friday it voted to offer a contract to Dr. Deborah Stewart to become superintendent of the kindergarten through eighth grade district for the Knox County towns of Hope and Appleton and the Waldo County town of Lincolnville.

Stewart would replace Superintendent David Wiggin, who will retire at the end of June. Stewart is superintendent in SAD 37, which provides kindergarten through 12th grade education in the Washington County towns of Addison, Cherryfield, Columbia, Columbia Falls, Harrington and Milbridge.

Stewart said Friday she has not yet seen the contract offered by School Union 69, and that accepting the position was not yet “a done deal.” She has kept the SAD 37 board apprised of her interest in other jobs, she said.

If the contract is signed, she will begin work in School Union 69 on July 1.

Stewart has been employed at SAD 37 for two years, and before that was superintendent for nine years in SAD 70 in the Hodgdon area in Aroostook County. She was superintendent in School Union 96, which includes the Washington County town of Steuben and the Hancock County towns of Winter Harbor, Gouldsboro, Sullivan, Sorrento and Franklin.

She also worked as a curriculum coordinator in the International School of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

The School Union 69 school committee cited Stewart’s “extensive experience in curriculum development and assessment,” and noted she has “a proven record of improvement of student achievement through the professional development of teachers and support staff.”

Stewart is a graduate of Lesley College in Cambridge, Mass., earned a master’s of education in administration from the University of Maine in Orono and a doctorate in education from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

School Union 69 has offered Stewart an annual salary of $83,000 in addition to health insurance benefits.

Stewart said she owns property along the coast in Milbridge and loves that area, but would enjoy living in the more culturally and economically vibrant midcoast area.

Wiggin, who was hired in 2001, oversaw a consolidation of administrative functions in the district, and the building problems of the old Lincolnville Central School and the construction of the new Lincolnville Central School.