SAD 41 assistant superintendent will become superintendent

MILO — With SAD 41/AOS 43 Superintendent Michael Wright retiring at the end of the academic year, the school units did not have to look far to find his successor. Assistant Superintendent Darcie Fournier will be taking over for the 2023-24 school year.

SAD 41/AOS 43 board member Roberta Trefts made the announcement during a regular meeting of the SAD 41 directors on June 6 at the Penquis Valley School. Trefts said the session would be Wright’s last regular school board and she wanted to congratulate him on his upcoming requirement.

Trefts said the AOS 43 board made the decision during its May meeting.

Wright has been on the job for nearly 14 years, starting in the summer of 2009. Several years after coming to the Milo-based school district, the position evolved into the AOS 43 superintendent job. This superintendent’s duties consist of overseeing both SAD 41 and neighboring SAD 31 of the Howland area. The school units have separate schools but share a central office.

Fournier came to SAD 41/AOS 43 in the summer of 2018 as the assistant superintendent and curriculum coordinator.

In other business, the school finalized the schedule for the budget approval process.

The AOS 43 annual district budget meeting starts at 5;45 p.m. at the Marion C. Cook School in LaGrange on Wednesday, June 14, with a 5:30 p.m. information session.

The SAD 41 annual district budget meeting starts at 6 p.m. at the Penquis Valley School on Wednesday, June 21, with a 5:30 p.m. information session. The figure approved that evening will be moved to a budget validation referendum in the district communities of Brownville, LaGrange, and Milo on Thursday, June 29.

The school board also approved the district’s participation in a regional pre-kindergarten program. 

Wright said RSU 68 of Dover-Foxcroft Superintendent Stacy Shorey – who spent 4.5 years as the assistant superintendent in SAD 41/AOS from 2011-16 — led an effort to apply for and receive a $166,000 grant to expand pre-K offerings.

RSU 68 is partnering with SAD 41, SAD 4 of Guilford, and the Dexter-based SAD 46 as well as Child Development Services to provide four classrooms, a teacher, two ed techs, and two therapists for this program at the new RSU 68 superintendent’s office at 572 Bangor Road in Dover-Foxcroft. 

Wright said about 20 students around the region were identified as “should be getting services that they’re not.” He explained the approximate 4-year-olds may be in daycare but would benefit from receiving speech, occupational therapy, and similar services offered in the collaborative pre-K program.

“Five slots would be available for SAD 41,” Wright said, with three students currently signed up. He said transportation would be provided by the district and SAD 41 is planning to combine trips with high school students going to the Tri-County Technical Center in Dexter.

“I think it’s a win-win for us,” the superintendent said. “Those students would be on our roles and we would get subsidies for them and they would get services and a jump start on school.”

Victoria Van Trump was appointed as principal for Milo Elementary. Fournier said Van Trump has two decades’ of experience in public education, spanning pre-K to grade 8. She currently teaches grade 6 at Ellsworth Elementary Middle School.

Penquis Valley School Principal Tina Dumond said she wanted to thank Jack Eastman for all the work he has done reviving the SAD 41 music program. “We have a lot of students that are signing up for band,” Dumond said.
She said a band, comprised of musicians from the various district schools as well as some alumni, performed in Milo’s Memorial Day parade and for a post-procession ceremony at the veterans memorial in the Evergreen Cemetery.