SAD 41 fifth grade moving to Penquis Valley

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

MILO — Starting in the fall, all grade 5 students in SAD 41 will be attending classes with pupils in grades 6-8 in the middle school portion of the Penquis Valley School complex. During a school board meeting on March 9, the directors approved a motion to proceed with the plan to move fifth-graders from the Milo and Brownville elementary schools.

“It will help better utilize the space up here,” Superintendent Michael Wright said, with the grade 5 move also helping to alleviate crowding at Milo Elementary. When asked Milo Elementary Principal Julie Royal said an estimated 36 fewer students would be at the school next year.

Assistant Superintendent Stacy Shorey said last month administrators met with middle school and current fifth-grade staff. She said next year’s grade 5 classrooms would be housed on the first floor of the present middle school wing. “With a little tweaking we will definitely have enough space,” she said.

Speaking on grade 5 curriculum, Shorey said, “One of the advantages is we are going to have grade level and content level teams.”

Penquis Valley Principal Jeremey Bousquet said next year’s planned classes, developed by a scheduling committee, would follow “a massive waterfall schedule, which is very complicated to hear but little easier to see.” He added, “Basically it’s a five-schedule day over five days and it will fall down” as the week progresses.

Bousquet said class times will vary throughout the week, and all sessions will be 60 minutes instead of the current 80-minute time frame at the high school and 40 minutes a class at the middle school level. “One of the advantages is it puts all of our kids, 5-12, on the same bell schedule,” he said. Bousquet said there will also be time during the day for extra help, clubs to meet, science classed to have longer labs and more.

“We’re fitting it in the same time we have now, starting at 8 o’clock and ending at 2:30,” he said.

Shorey said a few items still to be addressed with the grade 5 move are room assignments, another resource room teacher and student storage and lockers.

Wright was asked about the portables at Milo Elementary. He said a decision on these structures will be made in the future “as part of that bigger plan and we don’t know yet.”

The superintendent said last month the district administrators met to discuss a larger realignment plan. “There was a general consensus the direction we ought to move forward is the big picture and the big picture is a pre-K to grade 12 facility here on campus,” Wright said.

A board workshop prior to the regular meeting gave the school the opportunity to learn more about long-term options for the district. The capital improvement committee will be meeting on Thursday, March 17 at 6 p.m. at the Marion C. Cook School in LaGrange “to continue with the process,” Board Chair Arthur Herbest said.

In other business, Wright said, “We have started the budget process and have asked principals to identify needs for next year.”

He said news reports earlier in the day informed of a bill to provide $15 million more for education and how this would affect SAD 41 remains to be determined. “On the preliminary information, we received $89,000 more than last year,” Wright said. He said this additional funding is for the district as a whole “and there are so many factors that come into the budget,” as district officials will develop the spending plan over the ensuing few months.

Wright said later on the agenda would be four retirements at Penquis Valley. “All of these positions we have put out advertisements for and all of them we have folders of applications for — some more than others,” he said.

The school board later OKed the retirements of history teacher Russ Carey, Spanish teacher Geoff Gilette, English teacher Chris Hamlin and Athletic Director Tony Hamlin. “We have plaques for all people who retire at the end of the year,” Wright said.

With spring sports starting in several weeks, the board made seven appointments. For the high school Nick Emery will be the baseball head coach, Erin Allen will lead the softball team, Carey will serve as the tennis coach and Mike Orcut will be the track head coach with Sasha Bladen serving as the assistant. Jeremy Durost was appointed as the middle school baseball coach and Crystal Cail will be the middle school softball coach.

In his report to the school board, Bousquet said he wanted to address the status of a Penquis Valley student. “As many of you know we had a student who got in a pretty bad auto accident on Saturday,” Bousquet said.

The principal said staff met and decided to not have an all-school assembly, in part because there is still a great deal of unknown information. “At the end of the day there’s a student 47 miles away in the ICU and that’s how we should react,” he said.

On the morning of March 9, Bousquet made a post on the Penquis Valley Facebook page about the student — using the pupils’ initials D.P. The principal wrote, “I wanted to take a second and update everyone and provide some points of clarity on the known status of D.P. This is not an easy situation and (there are) a lot of unknowns with D.P. and the current situation. To date we know that D.P. had a serious car accident, he has sustained multiple injuries. He is currently on the 8th floor ICU unit at EMMC. He is stable, he is neither improving or declining. Some tough roads are ahead for family and friends of D.P., and Penquis will be here to support in any way we can.

In the constant battle to provide correct and accurate information I want to take a moment to clarify some things. An in-house crisis team has been available for our staff and students as they process through this event. We have staff on call if the needs present themselves for further help. We have been ready and communicating with the family everyday and many key staff have spent countless hours with the family and friends of D.P. This is not an easy situation and we are doing what we can and what we need to with getting through this situation. Let’s not lose sight with what this is about, and instead of dividing a school and community, come together to support this student and our school community in this time of need.”

Bousquet wrote that students who have questions or needs, wants or would like someone to talk to, to please contact him or the guidance department. Bousquet asked that they not resort to social media to perpetuate the cycle of misinformation or falsifications and untruths.

The principal also said the second annual Coaches vs. Cancer benefit basketball game will be taking place at Piscataquis Community High School in Guilford on Saturday, March 19 at 5 p.m. “There was such a great success with that last year, they are doing it again,” Bousquet said.

The game raises funds for the Aliza Jean Family Cancer Foundation, “and they were the first ones to reach out to the Mills family,” Bousquet said. The 2015 Coaches vs. Cancer event took place at Penquis Valley with proceeds benefitting the family — through the Aliza Jean Family Cancer Foundation — of then sixth-grader Zak Mills.

“If you want to make a donation you can drop it off at the school or go to the game on the 19th,” Bousquet said.