SAD 41 officials getting ready

To bring realignment options to the public

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

MILO — Prior to a Jan. 6 meeting of the SAD 41 school board, the directors met with architect Stephen Blatt to discuss a facilities study being conducted across the district campuses. The study is providing district officials with information as they contemplate possibilities for realignment to be presented to the public in the near future.

“We need to kind of fine tune and refine the numbers and bright it back to another board meeting,” Superintendent Michael Wright said about the facilities study being conducted by Stephen Blatt Architects of Portland. He said questions brought up during the board meeting and over the ensuing weeks will be directed to Blatt.

“If we have this facilities study, should we also talk about realignment?,” Wright said. He said one idea could be to remove the portables at Milo Elementary “which would alleviate part of the parking problem,” with all SAD 41 fifth-graders joining older middle school students at the Penquis Valley School complex. “Maybe we could redistribute the numbers better with Brownville and Milo,” he said about another possibility.

Another idea being considered is having one facility for pre-kindergarten through grade 12, with the Penquis Valley facility being designed to house all SAD 41 pupils.

Wright said later in the week administrators would be devising “a plan to get out to teachers on possible realignment. We would come back with how they would troubleshoot it and what they thought.”

The facilities study and realignment are scheduled to be on the agenda for the school board’s Feb. 3 meeting. At that time directors may schedule a public information session on the various options for SAD 41’s long-term future.

“Not everything’s set in stone, it’s a plan to move forward with,” Wright said.

In other business, Wright said the start of 2016 brings about the initial work in developing the budget for the ensuing 2016-17 academic year. “We will be starting the budget process pretty soon, the first thing is we meet with principals to identify staffing needs for the new year,” he said. “Over the next several months the budget will be formed.”

The Jan. 6 meeting included a recognition of Milo Elementary Counselor BJ Bowden, who was named the Maine School Counselor Association’s Maine School Counselor of the Year for 2015-16.

Milo Elementary grade 5 teacher MaryLynn Kazyaka said numerous responses came back in the form of award nomination letters for Bowden. “After I received 10 back I stopped because we received so many,” Kazyaka said, saying that a humble Bowden “will tell you it’s all about the kids.”

She read one nomination letter which was from the Baker family of LaGrange, and how Bowden helped look after the two children at the Marion C. Cook School while their father was twice deployed to Iraq. “It was her work outside the traditional classroom that meant the world to us,” the letter stated. Bowden also helped the daughter win a contest for children of military families to receive a hunting trip out West.

Milo Elementary Principal Julie Royal said Bowden moved into the district a decade ago “with no connection and now she really is part of the school community.”

Royal said Bowden, who has worked at the three past and present SAD 41 elementary schools, is involved with the Maine College Circle’s Futures of Maine Scholarships, College Knowledge Bowl competition, Civil Rights Teams and more. “That list is all above and beyond her daily guidance classes,” Royal said. “She and I are the last ones there at 5 and 6 o’clock at night.”