SAD 41 district budget meeting Thursday evening

MILO — The dates for the annual district budget meeting and referendum on the 2018-19 SAD 41 budget were both scheduled by the school board during a June 13 meeting at the Penquis Valley School.

The annual district budget meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 21 in the Walter E. Oakes Gymnasium at Penquis Valley, with an informational meeting before at 5:30 p.m. The total budget approved across the warrant items then will be moved to a referendum one week later on Thursday, June 28. Residents of Atkinson, Brownville, LaGrange and Milo will vote either “yes” or “no” on the total budget at the polls.

The current academic year’s budget is $8,500,571, as this sum was approved at referendum last summer.

In other business, the district did not have to look far in its principal search at Penquis Valley. Interim Principal Michael Rollins was hired as principal for the high school for July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2020, with an annual salary of $75,000.

“I would like to thank Mike Rollins for stepping up and being interim principal for the rest of this year,” Superintendent Michael Wright said. “I would also like to thank Jason Mills for stepping up and not only being AD but assistant principal for the rest of this year.”

In early May Wright told the school board that Principal Daniel Ross had emailed him his letter of resignation and this item was formally accepted by the directors at the May 2 meeting. The superintendent said the principal search started right after with interviews scheduled for mid-May.

Ross was hired in September to succeed Jeremy Bousquet, who left Penquis after several years as principal and more than a decade working in the building to become assistant principal/athletic director at Old Town High School. Ross had previously worked in RSU 50 in northern Penobscot County and southern Aroostook County. He had been serving as assistant principal and athletic director at both Katahdin Middle and High School in Stacyville and Southern Aroostook Middle and High School in Dyer Brook.

Rollins first came to Penquis Valley for the 2016-17 academic year, serving as assistant principal with Bousquet and Ross before taking over on an interim basis through the end of June.

Next year Penquis Valley will have Rollins overseeing the high school and current Milo Elementary School Principal Kirstina Dumond will be moving across town to serve as principal of Penquis Valley Middle School. Dumond’s nomination was also approved by the school board as she was hired for the 2019 and 2020 school years with an annual salary of $75,000.

Dumond had been at Milo Elementary for the last two years.