Final SAD 46 remote learning day will be June 5 

DEXTER — Following a month and a half of remote learning for students and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, this method of instruction will continue for about four more weeks as the SAD 46 school board approved Friday, June 5 as the final remote learning day of 2019-20 during a May 6 meeting conducted via Zoom.

“We would like to have June 5 as our last day of remote learning,” Superintendent Kevin Jordan said before an affirmative vote by the directors. He said additional staff days would be split between June and August to help plan for the opening of classes in the 2020-21 academic year.

“There’s so much of an unknown now, we stand a much better chance in August of planning for a school opening,” he said. 

The superintendent said presently SAD 46 officials and educators across Maine and beyond cannot be sure if fall classes will be held in person in some shape or form or still remotely. If students are still learning at home in several months then lessons learned from remote instruction to close out 2020 will be applied.

“We want to be better in September then we are right now,” Jordan said.

“Summer school is to be determined,” he said later in the meeting. “At a minimum we would do remote learning.” Jordan said perhaps the building could be opened for the program while adhering to social distancing practices.

“We have started talking about how we start the new school year and we quickly realized we have so much to talk about before we open school,” Jordan said in his report. He said three committees, made up of staff and board members, will assist in this process. The trio of groups, to be filled, will be health and safety, social and emotional learning and academic reentry to instruction.

In other business, the school board approved the superintendent’s nomination of Brian Leavitt as Tri-County Technical Center (TCTC) director. Leavitt, who will succeed the retiring Dr. Patrick O’Neill, will have a 2-year contract from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2022 with an $83,000 annual salary.

“We had a very, very strong field of candidates,” Jordan said. “We interviewed four finalists.”

“Fairly quickly it became clear it was unanimous Brian was the candidate,” he said. Jordan said Leavitt is a 1983 graduate of Dexter Regional High School and he is currently principal of Machias Memorial High School and director of the Coastal Washington County Institute of Technology in Machias. 

“He is looking to be a full-time (career and technical education) director and he is looking to come back home,” Jordan said.

Dr. O’Neill said he has worked with Leavitt for the last several years. “I think he will take things to the next level, he is a go-getter, he knows the area and he will do great things for the district,” Dr. O’Neill said.

Dr. O’Neill and Rep. Steven Foster, R-Dexter have been working on a solution to helping TCTC CNA and CDL students gain their needed hours of program instruction while remote learning is in place. Foster told the board he has been sending numerous letters to state officials seeking a solution and he said Maine Department of Education Commissioner Pender Makin should have a decision in the near future.

“What we are really looking for, especially for the CDL, was for the instructors to get back with their students in a safe manner,” Foster said, such as one-on-one instruction as the pupils gain their needed hours on the road. He said CNA students who have been hired could fulfil their work hours with their new employer but others would still need their clinical time.

Dr. O’Neill said in the state there are 540 CTE CNA clinical students who would need a waiver for the number of required hours in order to take their state boards. For CDL he said there are 74 students throughout Maine currently enrolled in programs. Both the Maine Department of Transportation and state board of nurses will weigh in on requirements needed for licensure. 

“I will keep at it and do whatever is necessary,” Foster said.

Dexter Regional High School Principal Stephen Bell said late last month he met with leaders from the Class of 2020 and he would be doing so again to plan senior activities. “Some are going to happen and some are not going to happen,” he said. “The bottom line is we have some decisions to make.”

Bell said the school is planning for what he calls “a drive-in graduation experience.” He said the ceremony would likely take place on the football field with a procession of cars. Details are being worked on and graduation held with this method should fit within all social distancing regulations.

“The important thing is to let people know there is going to be a graduation,” Bell said. 

Jordan reported the budget committee met twice last month and has meetings scheduled on Wednesday evenings throughout May. “We are still in draft format with more work to be done,” he said.

Board member Elaine Thomas said the Piscataquis Valley Adult Education Cooperative (PVAEC) budget looks to be up about 2 percent for the several member districts. She said candidates for the executive director position have taken place with one candidate having been offered the job, succeeding the retiring Thelma Regan.

An agenda for the RSU 68 school boarding meeting scheduled for Tuesday, May 12 lists the in-coming PVAEC director as Carolyn Haskell with a salary of $65,000 for the 2020-21 academic year. The salary and cooperative costs are split among the member school districts.

“After today food service and the bus drivers and support staff have delivered 31,238 meals,” Jordan said, with students having breakfast and lunch brought to their homes. He said thanks to the efforts of Ridge View school nurse Crystal Greaves and others more than 720 food boxes have been delivered across SAD 46.

“If you think about it, a little over 31,000 meals have been sent out of our kitchen since March 15, that’s incredible,” Jordan said.

“We are getting food boxes out every two weeks and we are getting meals out Monday, Wednesday, Friday,” Ridge View Principal Gerald Kiesman said.