Administrators appointed
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Clint Deschene and Gehrig Johnson were unanimously appointed at last Wednesday night’s SAD 1 board meeting as assistant superintendent for business and superintendent, respectively.
Deschene’s last day as Auburn city manager was Nov. 15, 2014. He begins his new duties in the district Dec. 1. Deschene, a 1991 graduate of Presque Isle High School, will replace Charles Anderson who retired effective Sept. 30, but has continued on a contracted service basis.
Directors voted to extend Johnson’s current contract until June 30, 2015 — under the same terms and conditions that currently exist — while the board continues its search for a new superintendent. Johnson planned to retire Dec. 31, but when the board’s 12-month search did not result in an appointment, he agreed to stay until a suitable replacement was found.
Also at the November meeting, directors:
• Received an update on this year’s apple crop from John Hoffses, manager of the SAD 1 Educational Farm.
“As of this morning, we have sold 44,821 pounds of fresh apples, which is a little above average. We have processed about 45,668 pounds of cider apples, and we’ve actually shipped 24,948 pounds of apples downstate due to storage issues bringing our total to 115,437 pounds of apples,” he said. “Our record year was in 2012 when we processed 140,980 pounds.
“We have another 93,324 pounds in storage, so it’s been a very busy season,” said Hoffses. “While it will be a while yet before we have an exact number, it’s looking like we’ll see approximately $137,000 for the season, so we should finish in the top three years as far as revenue.”
• Heard from LeRae Kinney, director of SAD 1’s Adult and Community Education, who shared with the board some of the courses, programs and services being planned for the winter semester.
“My personal goal for adult and community education is twofold — the first goal is recruitment and retention. We need more students,” she said. “The second goal is to provide a wide variety of opportunities for members of the community … essentially to put the ‘community’ back in adult and community education.”
• Were notified that the finals of a recent soccer tournament involving schools from Fort Kent, Houlton, Ashland, and Howland recently were held at the Johnson Athletic Complex in Presque Isle. The tournament generated revenue of approximately $4,000 at the gate, and $900 in concessions.
Board Chair Lucy Richard asked Johnson if the district is “starting to put money aside” for the eventual replacement of the field turf.
“We’re going to have to address that at some point,” Johnson said. “When we put the field turf in eight years ago, we were told — at the time — that the turf’s lifespan would be approximately 12-17 years. It’s still in good condition, but it will need to be replaced in the next 3-5 years. It would be a good idea to start addressing this in the budget process.”
Several years ago the district received an estimate of $250,000 to replace the artificial turf, or rug. Johnson said with inflation, that number could now be upwards of $300,000.
The next SAD 1 board meeting will be held Wednesday, Dec. 10 at 5 p.m. in the board conference room at PIHS.
