SAD 4 officials to further discuss secondary school options

GUILFORD — The future of the Guilford-based school district remains uncertain as officials weigh multiple possibilities. 

The SAD 4 School Board met on Nov. 12 at Piscataquis Community Elementary School to discuss, in part, a letter sent last week from Foxcroft Academy to the six towns that make up the Guilford-based district regarding becoming the high school for students from the area. 

Superintendent Kelly MacFadyen said a meeting took place just over a year ago in which the concept of SAD 4 tuitioning high school students to the Dover-Foxcroft secondary school was brought up. The arrangement would be similar to that of RSU 68 in Dover-Foxcroft, as Foxcroft Academy serves as the public high school for four towns in this school district. 

In such a scenario, SAD 4 would remain for students in grades pre-K to 8 from Abbot, Cambridge, Guilford, Parkman, Sangerville and Wellington. Meanwhile, the district “would tuition our high school students to [Foxcroft Academy], we would provide transportation to and from, and they would provide transportation in terms of extracurricular activities, sporting events,” MacFadyen said.

In late 2024, Foxcroft Academy was looking to expand vocational and technical training program offerings by rehabilitating the Penquis Higher Education Center in Dover-Foxcroft for Foxcroft Academy students and pupils in other districts, as well as local residents who are out of high school. Since then, federal grant funding that would have covered part of the startup expenses has been pulled.

“At that time, we told them we were committed to our application with Dexter for the regional high school, we were right in the middle of that process at that time a year ago,” MacFadyen said.

SAD 4 is working on an application for a regional comprehensive high school with the Dexter-based-SAD 46 through the Maine Department of Education.

The application is moving forward, but should the project not come to fruition, then further conversions could take place with Foxcroft Academy, MacFadyen said. 

A 10-year contract timeline with Foxcroft Academy has been mentioned.

“We revamped and resubmitted the application after many date changes by the state,” SAD 4 Board Chair Niki Fortier said of the regional high school proposal. The first part of the document has been submitted to the DOE and the second part is due next October.

Fortier and Foxcroft Academy Board of Trustees President Ethan Annis have had numerous conversations, Fortier said.

“At no time has there been any offer to have any meeting in public. We are a public entity, we cannot meet behind closed doors like [Foxcroft Academy] can,” she said. 

Decisions on the future are made by the school board, but members want public input, Fortier said.

Any projects or tuition agreements would go to a referendum after a series of public meetings.

Annis understands SAD 4 is a public entity, Fortier said. “Their only concern is they want to be part of conversations to be considered an option,” she said.

People have many questions, such as what such an arrangement would mean for jobs and transportation, but “we cannot answer those questions because none of those conversations have taken place,” Fortier said.

The Foxcroft Academy Board of Trustees has 17 members and the letter said SAD 4 could have two seats. Whether these officials would replace two already in place or increase the total to 19 is not clear.

The idea of having technical programs offered at the current Piscataquis Community Secondary School was mentioned.

“So we would still have something in that building,” MacFadyen said.

For grades 7-8, students would either come back to the elementary school or, if the secondary school stayed open for tech programs, “it is possible we could keep a wing open for those middle school students,” she said.

Pros and cons all need to be weighed, board member Thelma Regan said. 

“Are kids who are shining in that small group, would they have that same opportunity?” she wondered about students going from PCHS to the larger Foxcroft Academy. 

The two schools have approximate enrollment figures of 140 and 410, respectively.

Members of the SAD 4 community recently came out to a parade to welcome back the PCHS boys soccer team after it won the state championship. 

“It’s special in a small community,” she said.

SAD 4 board member Danielle Gray, a 1993 Foxcroft Academy alum with daughters who have graduated from both PCHS and Dexter, said board members are very in tune to their towns.

“Everybody knows everybody within this community,” she said.

She also noted that Dexter has been willing to collaborate with SAD 4, particularly in athletics.

In the spring, a half dozen high school baseball players from PCHS were part of the Dexter team, rather than not playing at all due to low numbers in Guilford. Middle school field hockey players traveled to Dexter to be part of the Ridge View Community School squad to have the opportunity to participate.

 “Dexter took those kids on with open arms,” Gray said.

When asked why Foxcroft Academy would want to have SAD 4 students tuitioned in, MacFadyen said it was due to declining enrollments in the region and beyond.

“We all are grappling with how to keep taxes down and how to provide a quality education for our students, it’s something we are all trying to address,” she said.

Board member Art Jette pointed out that SAD 4 directors are elected, whereas Foxcroft Academy trustees are not. This creates a bond between community and those who make decisions on issues such as curriculum, staffing and policy, he said.

“We were elected, the decision makers there aren’t,” Jette said.

“Honestly, we have so much more to discuss,” Fortier said in wrapping up talk for the evening.

In other business, PCES Principal Anita Wright was asked about the school’s therapy dog and regretted to inform the board that such an animal will not be coming.

Mission Working Dogs, a Lewiston-based nonprofit that breeds and trains service, therapy, and facility dogs for veterans, schools and nursing homes, was concerned that the dog would be owned by the school, Wright said. The organization wondered about the fate of the dog with budget cuts and if the handler were to depart.

SAD 4 officials did have plans in place for these scenarios.

“It became clear they were just not comfortable with the school owning the dog,” Wright said.

“The best thing to do is to move forward,” she said. “We have all that money and now they just have to decide how they want to spend it.”

Ideas mentioned include donations to an animal shelter and/or the Travis Mills Foundation.

Every year Wright encourages sixth-graders to participate in the “Make a Difference” challenge as they brainstorm, develop and complete projects that positively impact others around the world. 

After Christy Gardner from Mission Working Dogs spoke at a previous Veterans Day assembly, the then-grade 5 students decided their goal would be to get a therapy dog for PCES.

The sixth graders raised $5,614 in their Make a Difference challenge, which would have funded the therapy dog training as well as the first year of insurance and a monogrammed dog bed.

The earliest the dog could have arrived was the first part of 2026, after a 15-month training process, and the sixth-graders knew they would have moved on from PCES by the time the dog was in the building.

Donations can now be made online to the district’s Weekend Backpack Program at fullplates.org/pantry-donation, District Nurse Wendy Viera said.

The initiative helps address food insecurity among SAD 4 students. The Weekend Backpack Program provides school children with simple, easy-to-prepare meals to take home when school-provided nutrition is not accessible. 

Nearly 80 students have signed up and “on average 43 are coming back each week to be refilled by the food pantry,” Viera said.