PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Members of the SAD 1 school board voted unanimously on Wednesday to end their administrative sharing contract with SAD 45 in Washburn effective July 1, 2019, at the end of the 2018-2019 fiscal year.
The decision comes four months after both SAD 1 and SAD 45 voted to renew the contract, which both districts began during the 2016-2017, for another three years. The contract provided for the sharing of superintendents, special education and information technology services between SAD 1 and SAD 45 and came about after encouragement from the Maine Department of Education for smaller rural districts to reduce overall school administrative costs.
Under the contract, SAD 45 paid SAD 1 $63,000 annually, but would have seen that cost increase to $64,575 in 2020 and $66,190 in 2021. They also paid SAD 1 $85 per student for IT services and for two days a week of work from the SAD 1 special education director.
A $165,000 education efficiency grant that expires at the end of this year covered the costs for SAD 45 to receive special education and IT services from SAD 1.
The SAD 1 board’s decision comes amid the district’s search for a new superintendent after the resignation of Brian Carpenter in January. Carpenter had been serving as superintendent for both SAD 1 and SAD 45.
SAD 45 also currently is searching for a new superintendent, according to the school district’s website. During their most recent school board meeting, SAD 45 officials did not vote to end the shared contract but said they expected SAD 1 to possibly withdraw and wished to be prepared for that scenario.
Gehrig Johnson, interim superintendent for SAD 1, noted during the school board meeting on March 20 that his district decided to withdraw from the agreement in order to not burden the new superintendent with too many extra administrative duties so early in his tenure.
As per a provision in the contract, SAD 1 will give SAD 45 a 90-day notice of withdrawal.
“It would be difficult for someone to come in to a larger district like SAD 1 and immediately take on administrative duties for another school system as well,” said Johnson, who also serves as the superintendent for SAD 32 in Ashland. “I think it would be in our best interests to allow the new person a fair chance to adjust.”
In other business, SAD 1 board chair Lucy Richard gave an update regarding the search for a new superintendent. She said that the district posted a job advertisement online on March 8, with a deadline for application requests of March 20.
“We’ve had four requests so far and we’ve been feeling good about the process moving forward,” Richard said.
Johnson will remain the interim superintendent for SAD 1 until the selected superintendent begins serving the district on July 1.
