CARIBOU, Maine — School officials recently announced that Leland Caron, current principal of Caribou Middle School, will be principal of the Caribou Community School, a new $53 million facility scheduled for completion in August 2020.
“To have an opportunity to be a part of this amazing project is hard to explain,” Caron said. “It’s humbling. I’m excited, and I’m up for the challenge.”
He said the application process was far more rigorous than that of previous job applications, and that RSU 39 (a school unit consisting of Caribou, Limestone and Stockholm) opened up the process to anyone interested in applying, not just those already employed by the district.
Those who applied went through two rounds of interviews, and the candidates selected during that process then met with three different committees: one consisting of school and city officials, another consisting of a cross section of teachers from Teague Park Elementary School and Caribou Middle School, and a third committee consisting of community members, parents and local business owners.
Following these interviews, finalists then attended another interview consisting of a “cross section of those teams,” according to Caron, who said the interviewers were “very thorough.”
“It was put together very well,” he said, “and it was really intense.”
When Caron received a phone call from RSU 39 Superintendent Tim Doak letting him know that he got the job, he said it was “such a euphoric feeling” being entrusted with this level of responsibility after working in RSU 39 schools for the past 14 years.
“It is our goal to make this a cutting edge school,” he said. “The inside is going to look just as marvelous as the outside as we look to engage students and prepare them for what’s on the horizon.”
