SeDoMoCha School students will be returning to the classroom soon
DOVER-FOXCROFT — With pre-kindergarten through grade 8 students at the SeDoMoCha School scheduled to have their first day of classes on Tuesday, Aug. 29, the RSU 68 board of directors had its last meeting of the summer on Aug. 1 to prepare for the 2017-18 academic year and learn more about the summer lunch program which is running through Friday, Aug. 18.
“It’s been hugely successful,” Superintendent Stacy Shorey said. Meals are served at the school free of charge to all children under the age of 18 weekdays at 11 a.m. and a free breakfast is available at 8:30 a.m. Lunch is also being served across town at the Piscataquis Regional YMCA and in Milo at the Derby Community Center.
“We have served 1,216 lunches here and that was with four days left in July and 13 in August,” Shorey said. “We served 1,473 lunches in all of 2016.”
“Our average daily participation is 80 to 105 meals this year,” the superintendent added. “I can’t say enough good things, it’s going very, very well.”
When asked, Shorey said the summer meals program expenses are reimbursed to the district through state funds. “It’s based on your free and reduced lunch percentage,” she said, saying RSU 68 has about 55 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced lunch or right at the threshold to be eligible for state reimbursement.
Shorey also said she is working the Maine Department of Transportation on the placement of a wayfinding sign at the end of Harrison Avenue at the intersection with Summer Street (Route 6/16). She said the staff of Lary Funeral Home are being very generous in allowing the sign to go on the business property.
“I’m waiting for a quote,” Shorey said in response to a question on the sign price.
In other business, the fall middle school appointments were made with Assistant Principal Nathan Dyer serving as athletic director again. The coaches will be Chris Miller, cross country; Laura Moors, field hockey; Carolyn Newhouse, assistant field hockey; Tom Sands, football; Seth Sands, assistant football; James Bell Jr., boys soccer; and Alexis Dumont, girls soccer.
Before the school board elected its chair and vice chair, Chair Rick Johnston said he will not be running for another term as one of Charleston’s two representatives to the RSU 68 directors. Johnston said he will be getting done after two decades following Charleston’s annual town meeting in March.
Vice Chair Jenny Chase was elected as board chair, a position she has held in past years, for the remainder of the 2017-18 academic year and Marc Poulin is the new vice chair.