SAD 1 board OKs new elementary principals

    PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – Two familiar faces will be in new positions when the 2007-08 school year begins later this month.
At the July SAD 1 board meeting, directors accepted the resignation of Zippel Elementary School principal Tom Folsom, and then filled it by transferring Sharon Brown, who had been the principal at Pine Street Elementary School for 10 years.     According to SAD 1 Superintendent Gehrig Johnson, Folsom resigned in June to take a job as a school administrator in Dubai.
“He resigned the day after the June meeting,” said Johnson, noting Folsom didn’t want any fuss made over his departure. “Tom took a job in Dubai, which is the richest country in the world. He will supervise a group of principals in Muslim schools.”
Since Folsom’s resignation came after the board’s June meeting, directors couldn’t act on it until the July 18 meeting.
“Sharon Brown requested the transfer, and since she is a veteran administrator, the board honored her request,” said Johnson. “She had about half that staff anyway back when we had K-5 schools, and she really likes that level.”
With Brown’s transfer, the principalship at Pine Street became vacant. At last month’s meeting, directors hired Loretta Clark, the district’s day care and preschool director, as the new Pine Street principal.
“I recommended Loretta because she is another administrator who is part of our team now,” said Johnson, “plus she was the assistant to the principal at Gouldville Elementary School and principal at Westfield Elementary School before they closed.
“Loretta has moved around a little bit,” he said, “and this is her first chance to have a building again. I think she deserves that opportunity.”
Clark went on to become the director of the district’s preschool, and later added the duties of day care program director and early childhood program instructor.
Also at the meeting, directors:
• Appointed Randall Harper as a physical science teacher at Presque Isle High School, June Bagley as a Title 1 math and reading teacher at Presque Isle Middle School, Paula Weinstein to a special education position at Pine Street, Phyllis Hanson as a pre-kindergarten teacher at Mapleton, and William O’Connell as a district-wide school psychological examiner.
• Accepted the resignation of Lisa Baxter, fifth-grade teacher at Zippel, who has moved from the area.
• Accepted the transfers of Jennifer Espling from half-time pre-K at Pine Street to half-time kindergarten at Pine; Kelli Beaulieu from half-time kindergarten at Pine to first grade at Pine; Lisa Dow from Title 1 math/reading at PIMS to grade 7 at PIMS; Kellie Michaud from kindergarten at Mapleton to grade five at Zippel; Wendi Malenfant from grade 1 at Pine to grade 7 at PIMS; and Nora Pangburn from pre-K at Mapleton to kindergarten at Mapleton.
• Awarded the milk bid to Garelick Farms and bread products bid to LePage Bakeries.
The SAD 1 board of directors will hold its next meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 8 in the board conference room.