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MSAD 58 directors approve tuition agreement

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Joining the board Thursday was Director Lois Barker of Strong, sitting between Director John Foss of Phillips and Director Faith Richard, also of Phillips. Barker replaces Director Alan Smith of Strong, who resigned from the board. Barker was sworn in at the beginning of the meeting.
Joining the board Thursday was Director Lois Barker of Strong, seen here sitting between Director John Foss of Phillips and Director Faith Richard, also of Phillips. Barker replaces Director Alan Smith of Strong, who resigned from the board. Barker was sworn in at the beginning of the meeting.

STRONG – MSAD 58 school board directors unanimously approved a tuition agreement with Carrabassett Valley Thursday evening, in a three-hour long meeting the ranged over a variety of subjects.

The agreement sets the tuition rate at the actual cost to educate a student, rather than basing it off of the state’s “per pupil cost” rate. It also requires the town to pay for special education costs associated with Carrabassett Valley students. The town will transport students to and from the district with their own bus, something they did previously, but the agreement also includes funds for the transportation of students on MSAD 58 buses, covering the cost of sending students to sport matches and other events.

The agreement will need to be approved by both the MSAD 58 and Carrabassett Valley board annually. Roughly 20 students come from the town to Mt. Abram High School and Kingfield Elementary School.

“I like this agreement better than the one we had in the past,” Director Dan Worcester of Phillips said. Worcester said the new agreement better reflected the costs associated with educating students.

Funds for a volunteer coordinator, a tangential issue, will continue to be discussed by Superintendent Brenda Stevens and Carrabassett Valley. In the past, the town had provided approximately $25,000 for volunteer coordinators and associated supplies at each of the district’s then-four elementary schools. The coordinators work to bring volunteers into the schools and arrange a number of events; while none of them work directly in MAHS, administrators said Thursday that each typically would try to assist there as well.

However, this year, Carrabassett Valley has scaled back that offer to $7,000 for a volunteer coordinator in the Kingfield school, if the MSAD 58 board agreed to match the amount. A similar offer had been made to the Flaggstaff School District in Eustis, Stevens noted.

Some directors suggested avoiding programs that benefited only one school, and Stevens offered to make a counter-offer to Carrabassett Valley. In the interim, Stevens said, principals had been organizing volunteer activity in the schools. Some residents and volunteer coordinators in the audience addressed the issue during the public comment period, listing events the coordinators had organized.

Directors moved to table the issue until Stevens had a chance to speak to Carrabassett Valley.

The board also had an initial discussion on the Gifted and Talented Program, funds for which are sent to the district from the state. Some directors requested a more formalized evaluation process for students, expressing concerns that some students that would qualify were not having their needs met by the district. Sandra Schneipp, coordinator for the program, said that students were identified through either their standardized test scores or by teacher or parent recommendation, after which a team of administrators and teachers would meet to develop an plan for the student.

“My fear is that there are [gifted and talented] children falling through the cracks,” Board Chair Dianne Thomas of Phillips said, particularly in the case of a student with parents that might be too disassociated with their child’s education.

Schneipp said that there were 48 students in MSAD 58 currently identified as gifted and talented. Members of the audience, during the public comment period, addressed the issue by asking questions and requesting changes to the evaluation process, such as the inclusion of a timeline.

Directors also received a report from Steve Mitman, the high school’s career coordinator, on a significant jump of students attending Foster Technology Center on the Mt. Blue Campus. MSAD 58 went from sending 27 students in 2011-12 to 40 students this year. The technology center, which offers roughly 20 different programs ranging from culinary arts to computer technology to bioengineering to forestry, accepts Juniors and Seniors and Mitman said that students first tour the facility in the 8th grade.

Directors will meet next Thursday, Oct. 17 at Mt. Abram High School at 6:30 p.m. to go through the budget as part of consideration for a plan to tuition high school students to other districts. The majority of the board has already expressed opposition or concerns with the proposal, but agreed to go through the budget to help new directors familiarize themselves with the document.

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