Seven different capital improvement projects will be carried out across the SAD 4 school campuses in the current and next academic years after the directors approved a package of about $205,500 in district funds during a Feb. 12 meeting at Piscataquis Community Elementary School.

After some Foxcroft Academy seniors objected to a plan to eliminate the use of white graduation gowns for female students in favor of everyone wearing burgundy, the head of school said that members of the Class of 2019 will have input before a final decision is made. Graduation is scheduled for Sunday, June 9 and a decision on the attire could be made next month, a specific timeline and method are to be determined.

The precise wording is still being finalized, but when Dover-Foxcroft residents head to the polls in June they will be voting on an amended shoreland zoning ordinance after the selectmen passed a motion to put the final version of the document on the ballot during a Feb. 11 meeting.

Nearly a year after residents of the four SAD 41 communities voted down a referendum on an approximate $2.3 million funding package for a heating system upgrade, converting from steam to hot water, and energy efficiency project at the Penquis Valley School, a revised project will be brought forward for a vote at the polls on Thursday, March 14 with an information meeting the week before at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6.

RSU 68 officials are in the midst of putting together the components that will make up the 2019-20 academic year budget.

Piscataquis Community Elementary School kindergartener Abel Richardson thought he was attending a Winter Carnival kickoff assembly when he was called to the front of the cafeteria for a surprise presentation on Wednesday.

During a Feb. 5 meeting of the county commissioners, County Manager Tom Lizotte said the final Atkinson annual town meeting before deorganization would be held on the evening of Monday, Feb. 11. “I don’t anticipate any issues,” Lizotte said.

Each month outstanding pupils in grades 5-8 at Piscataquis Community Elementary School are honored as Students of the Month. The 10 January honorees were presented with certificates in front of their peers during morning meeting in the cafeteria on Monday, Jan. 28.

With 3:21 remaining in the fourth quarter, Foxcroft Academy trailed visiting John Bapst Memorial High School of Bangor 73-68 in a Jan. 29 Class B North/Big East Conference boys basketball game. From there the Ponies went on a 10-0 run to close out the contest on Senior Night for players Jair Garcia, Jeremy Richard, Hyatt Smith, and Matt Spooner and win 78-73 as the team helped solidify its spot for the postseason later in the month.

The meeting schedule is still to be finalized -- last year the group met weekly from late February across four sessions leading up to a public hearing the last Wednesday in March -- but the 2019-20 Dover-Foxcroft budget advisory committee is in place with four positions set by the selectmen during a Jan. 28 meeting.