Penquis Valley Middle School Outing Club to visit Medawisla Lodge

MILO — Next month the Penquis Valley Middle School Outing Club will travel to the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Medawisla Lodge & Cabins in central Piscataquis County.

The weekend trip was approved by the SAD 41 School Board during a Sept. 2 meeting at the Penquis Valley School. Students will be able to experience the wilderness and have fun with classmates.

The Outing Club heads out monthly. The group will go to Medawisla Lodge in October, with interested students applying for the trip, adviser Dawn McLaughlin said. 

“It’s a chance for our sixth-graders to see what is out there in the great state of Maine that we all know and love,” she said. 

Trip attendees would learn about leaving no trace, team building and natural resources.

Outing Club memberships cost $20, but scholarship funds are available so no one is turned away for lack of funds. The rate to stay at the lodge is $5 per student.

A mini golf fundraiser has been held to raise money. Several thousand dollars remain from a past Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation grant, and area businesses have contributed to the Outing Club.

In other business, the school board heard an update on the Penquis Valley sidewalk project. 

Leaders hoped to have work wrapped up by Aug. 31, but curbing being done by a subcontractor has delayed completion, Facilities and Transportation Director Dillon Watters said.

A.D. Smith Trucking of Dexter is installing a new sidewalk leading to the school along Penquis Drive off West Main Street.

The company was the lone project bidder and had done work in town last year. Earlier this year the state awarded the Town of Milo a $100,000 Community Enterprise Grant for the sidewalk installation. The sidewalk grant is the third in four years awarded to Milo. The community used a similar grant to fund parking lot improvements several years ago and sidewalk repairs in 2025.

Students will be able to walk safely to and from the building on the right side, rather than be in the road with all the vehicle traffic.

The town needs to provide an additional 25% of the total to meet a matching requirement, which would come out of the paving budget. Public works would do some demo work to help keep costs down.

The town plans to apply for more funding in 2027 for a sidewalk leading to Milo Elementary along High Street.

Milo Elementary has an enrollment of 125 for pre-K to grade 2, Principal Tina Dumond said. 

Kindergarten is the largest of the four grades with 39 pupils, five more than the next highest and 13 more than pre-K and grade 1.

Brownville Elementary has 74 students with these divided evenly between grades 3-4, Principal Joshua Bessey said.

Brownville Fire Chief Shawn Mitchell completed a walkthrough of the building before the first day of classes. He and Bessey planned a day for the department to come in for its annual visit during Fire Prevention Week.

The middle school enrolls 172 students, ranging from 39 to 47 per grade. The high school has 145 students, with 47 in grade 10 and 37 to 30 in other grades. 

The middle school has an enrollment count of 172, ranging from 39 to 47 students per grade. The building has 145 high school pupils, with 47 in grade 10 being the outlier of an otherwise range of 37 to 30.

Board Chair Mary Lynn Kazyaka welcomed Lynn Weston to the board of directors. Weston is a retired Brownville Elementary principal.

She will serve in one of the community’s three school board seats until the annual town meeting in March.