DOVER-FOXCROFT – SAD 68 directors and Foxcroft Academy trustees last week approved a two-year contract for educating the district’s students at the independent academy.

“We signed a two-year contract rather than the usual three-year contract because school consolidation is looming on the horizon and we’re not sure how all the pieces of the puzzle will fit together as the four local school districts combine into one new school unit,” SAD 68 Superintendent John Dirnbauer said Monday.

The major change in the contract is the amount Foxcroft Academy will receive in tuition from SAD 68 in the first year of the contract.

FA could have charged $8,800 per pupil, the maximum allowable tuition rate set by the state. Instead, through negotiations, the district will pay tuition to Foxcroft Academy at a rate of $8,600 per pupil, Dirnbauer said. He estimates that 350 pupils will attend FA from the SAD 68 communities of Monson, Sebec, Charleston and Dover-Foxcroft.

The second year of the contract, the district is to pay no less than the state maximum allowable, according to Jay Brennan, the academy’s associate headmaster.

“Foxcroft Academy is pleased to be entering into a contract with MSAD 68 for the education of all of its secondary students,” Brennan said Monday. “Private schools like Foxcroft Academy educate about 5,000 of Maine’s secondary students, and with a tradition as well as commitment of educating students from this area that dates back to 1823, Foxcroft is pleased to continue the very heart of its mission.”

Brennan said FA trustees have expressed, in writing to the commissioner of education, the school’s willingness to be a partner with local school districts in helping to provide secondary education to students from other towns and communities.

FA educates day students for 14 communities as well as boarding students from seven countries, Brennan said.