A Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant who goes above and beyond the call of duty and who gives back in other ways has been honored by the Valley Grange with the organization’s 2018 Community Citizen of the Year honor. Lt. Jamie Kane received the recognition on the evening of May 18 at the Grange Hall.

To approve a 2018-19 school budget totaling $7,087,042?

The Piscataquis County Teacher of the Year is Joseph Hennessey of Piscataquis Community High School, who teaches English at the school in the Guilford.

The Bill and Joan Alfond Foundation has awarded Good Shepherd Food Bank, Maine’s largest hunger-relief organization, a $200,000 grant to fund strategies for eliminating food insecurity in Piscataquis County and central Maine, including Dexter.

Players, coaches, teams and individuals who have made significant contributions to the Piscataquis Community High School athletic program and/or past educational institutions in towns that today are part of SAD 4 will have the opportunity to be honored in the newly-formed PCHS Athletic Hall of Fame.

A proposed $7,087,042 SAD 4 budget for the 2018-19 school year was approved -- with all 20 articles being passed as written over about 20 minutes with nearly 50 registered voters present -- during a district budget meeting on May 3 at Piscataquis Community Elementary School.

Mayo Regional Hospital has selected Cerner, a global leader in health care technology, to implement a new integrated electronic health record (HER) and revenue cycle solutions across it acute and ambulatory facilities. This agreement provides the hospital with sophisticated health care technology that will support Mayo doctors, nurses and staff as they work to streamline operations and improve patient care.

Organizers are getting ready for the 2018 Arts Alive event at Piscataquis Community Elementary School in Guilford. The Arts Alive tradition dates back to 1982 and this year’s event is scheduled for Friday, June 8. Over 100 volunteers will be coming to the school to share their talents and skills as students in pre-kindergarten through grade 8 take part in various activities and projects, which in past years from ranged from shaving cream art to drumming to karate.

The latest group of Students of the Month at Piscataquis Community Elementary School were honored in front of their peers during an April 27 morning meeting, a session moved back one week from the usual third Friday of the month due to the April vacation.

A 2018-19 academic year budget totaling $7,087,042, which includes a local assessment of just over $4,180,000, was approved by the SAD 4 school board during an April 10 meeting at Piscataquis Community Elementary School. The directors also set the district budget meeting for 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 3 at PCES.

For a decade the Valley Grange of Guilford has sponsored advertisements in the Piscataquis Observer’s annual Newspapers in Education supplement, which features business advertisement content created and drawn by school children from across the area. The advertisements for the Valley Grange have been drawn by students at the former Guilford Primary School and currently at Piscataquis Community Elementary School as again this year PCES third- and fourth-graders put their talents to work.

A look at the past four decades serving the region and a look to the future of helping the community were both features of the 40th anniversary celebration for Mayo Regional Hospital on the afternoon of Monday, April 9 in the Resource Center.

Well over a dozen students in the younger grades at Piscataquis Community Elementary School are now HEROs for their outstanding conduct during the month of March. The HERO honorees were recognized with the presentation of certificates during the school-wide morning meeting on April 6.

Sen. Paul Davis’, R-Sangerville bill to amend the penalties for hunting deer over bait survived a veto override by a vote of 33-0 in the Senate and 148-0 in the House.

Piscataquis Community Elementary School third-graders had the chance to be a little messy at their desks as the students each put together or birth a “dirt baby” -- seeds in a paper cup -- on April 3 during a GrowMe Project day at the school with activities held for the four younger grades.

Piscataquis Community High School Principal John Keane recently announced the valedictorian and two salutatorians for the Class of 2018.

Applications for the superintendent position were submitted at the start of the month and interviews with the leading candidates have been scheduled, the full SAD 4 school board learned during a March 20 meeting at Piscataquis Community High School.

At the March 23 all-school assembly to start the day six Students of the Month were named -- fifth-graders Lena Pearson and Devan Pelkey; sixth-grader Kaileigh Elderkin; seventh-graders Emma Calnan and Gracie Talbot; and eighth-grader Sydney Hutchins.