The Boothbay-Boothbay Harbor Community School District School Committee had its first regular meeting of the new school year on Wednesday, Sept. 13. It was a momentous occasion, with the committee nominating School Resource Officer Larry Brown for the 2017 Maine School Board Association Distinguished Service Award.

“His dedication to the students goes beyond the school day,” said Chair Larry Colcord. “He follows kids right from when he meets them right through the end. We’re very lucky to have him.”

“I appreciate this,” said Brown. “I’ve been at this for a little while and people say, ‘When are you going to retire?’ And, don’t worry, folks, my response is ‘I’ve been given the opportunity to create my own job, I love what I’m doing, and I plan on staying here for a while.’ This is the highlight of my day.”

Brown said of the normal, everyday beat the police department responds to: “It’s not always the positive interaction that I have with kids day to day.”

Boothbay Region Elementary School Principal Mark Tess reported on the summer reading and math program. A total of 29 children attended, with 11 from pre-kindergarten, seven from kindergarten, four from first grade, six from second grade and one from third grade. There was an 85 percent attendance.

Tess explained, the teachers administer a test at the beginning and end of the program to compare retention.

“All students either maintained or improved their level of competency from the last assessment at the end of school in June,” said Tess. “So that program is getting its money’s worth.”

Shifting gears, Tess brought up the recent 54th annual Maine Federation of Firefighters Convention and the schools’ participation in the Sept. 11 memorial service. Students from grades four through 12 attended and their respectful behavior garnered some attention, according to Tess.

“It was very emotional, very moving, and I could not have been more proud of all of the students … because they gave the proper amount of respect to that ceremony,” said Tess. “If you listened to a lot of the people from different communities who came in with the firefighters, that’s all they were commenting on.”

Tess also rattled off this year’s sports participation. There are seven girls and four boys in cross-country, 19 girls in soccer and 15 girls in field hockey. Tess congratulated three BRES students for getting the nod to the Special Olympics which will be held in July for four days in Seattle and Tacoma, Washington.

“Representing our community, and the state of Maine, will be Valerie Giles in soccer, Danny Miller and Grace Giles in swimming, and if some students drop out from other schools, we have two alternates: Amber Hyson and Isaac Pray for swimming … Congratulations to those athletes.”

Boothbay Region High School Principal Dan Welch reminded the committee, 2017 is a “GAPP” year for BRHS which means the school will be hosting students for the 10th year from Bad Harzburg, Germany.

“… Thirteen students (will) be staying in our region for 13 days, so you’ll see them around.”

Superintendent Eileen King said there were 20 staff changes across Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS) 98 between education technicians and teaching staff. The administration took the new teachers on a tour via Novelty to introduce them to the harbor and help them get their bearings.

“We always bring in two teachers to talk about a year in the life of a new teacher,” said King. “You never know what they are going to say — they quite often have funny stories about making sure you get to the microwave first before anyone else gets there or just talking about what it’s like to be a new teacher and some really good advice ...”

King also delivered some difficult news to the committee. “Jo Haney made a tough decision and decided to go to working half-time, she’ll be working 92 days this year as her segue into retirement,” said King. “We met a lot this summer and talked about what the possibilities were. What’s even better for us is that Kerrin Erhard who’s been overseeing the college access placement program has applied to be an ed tech III and will be working with Jo Haney throughout the year. In the meantime, she is taking her classes to get certified as a librarian and hopefully she’ll be ready to step into the position next year.”

In other news from the superintendent’s desk is an apparent shortage of substitute teachers. King reported that despite raising the salary from $65 per day to $75, applications are still not coming in.

“If you look at $75 per day at seven and a half hours, that’s not even $10 per hour or so,” said King,. “So, what I would like to do is raise our substitute pay for non-certified teachers … to $85 … and then a $100 for people that are certified teachers.”

King pointed out that the figures she came up with were just a suggestion and she expected the board would want to think about it, but the board was eager to vote on it immediately. The board unanimously passed the new rates King proposed.

The board also voted unanimously to accept King’s nominations to hire two new teachers — Jeffrey Waldrop, CSD instrumental music teacher, and Emelia Petroski, BRES fifth and sixth grade math teacher.

The committee meets in the BRHS library on the second Wednesday of the month. The next meeting is Wednesday, Oct. 11 at 6 p.m.