It's pretty calm over here, incoming Superintendent Keith Laser jokingly said of his office's pace, which has been  grueling. The Sept. 12 meeting marked his first official meeting with the school committee, but Laser said his “baptism” was the joint Trustees-Committee meeting last month. However, apart from Chair Larry Colcord’s welcome to the new superintendent, his new executive assistant Evelyn Andrews, and the new student representative Faith Blethen, business went as usual with four votes and a series of updates from Boothbay Region High School, Boothbay Region Elementary School, and Laser.

The committee unanimously accepted Laser’s nominations of Janet Sprague and Dennis Dacus to take first year, probationary contracts.. Laser’s nomination of Pamela Moody for adult education director  was also accepted unanimously. Peggy Splaine was elected unanimously as a voting delegate to the annual Maine School Management Association delegate assembly. The last item voted on, and approved unanimously, was a recommendation to review 17 policies for a first reading.

Principals Dan Welch of BRHS) and Mark Tess of BRES announced enrollments of 186 and 297 respectively. Among BRHS students are two international ones – one from Madrid, Spain, the other from the Philippines, Welch said. Tess said this year’s kindergarten has 22 students. Four are girls. Committee members Bruce MacDonald and Stephanie Hawke said they anticipate larger classes to come in the next few years.

BRES Assistant Principal Tricia Campbell will be speaking at the Maine Superintendents Management Association fall conference. Campbell said she will be speaking on emotional disturbance, which involves  issues such as anxiety and depression, and she will highlight BRES’s response with programs like Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), BRES Student Support Center, and other targeted student support services.

“Our school system is really a leader in my opinion in the work around social, emotional and behavioral needs for our students,” said Campbell. “So, I'm going to go and share with other professionals some of the effective ways to support students in their emotional and social needs.”

Campbell hopes to bring some of the BRES staff as the work toward these programs has been a team effort. Laser said having Campbell speak at the conference is an honor and a big deal.

Special Services Director Lisa Smith said summer has been a time of quick and inevitable change.

“We ended the year having all our staff, but this summer we lost the speech therapist, the physical therapist, psychological examiner and a teacher.”

The CSD got a physical therapist last week in the form of a firm called Sheepscot Bay PT. The firm is excited because it has never worked in schools and it recently hired a new physical therapist who wants a heavy pediatric caseload, Smith said. Also joining the CSD are school psychologist Melinda Renda; Presence Learning, a firm which provides speech tele-therapy; and Susan Taylor, an educational technician III with 18 years’ experience with vocational education.

BRES had an incredibly smooth opening, Tess said sarcastically with a nod to the power outage and buses unable to deliver students home on schedule.

“Other than that it's been an interesting opening,” said Tess. “I would say probably the most interesting in the 25 years that I've been here, so we're hoping that the rest of the year goes as smoothly.”

The Summer Title I program, now 15 years old, saw 27 students improve reading skills, said Tess. Five fifth and sixth grade students enrolled in a new summer program focused mainly on mathematics, science and literacy. Tess said a survey was performed at the end of the new four-week program and all the parents felt their children left the summer program much more confident.

“On the last day when they were leaving, one of the kids left saying 'Fractions are easy,’” said Tess. “That's what we like.”

Tess said an $800 membership to Ruth's Reusable Resources – a Westbrook-based business that makes office supplies and equipment available to schools and nonprofits – saved BRES about $6,500.

Welch said that over spring and part of summer, he was pessimistic there would be enough athletes to fill all the sports teams by this fall, namely football which is a young team with few substitutes.

“Allan, Dr. Laser and myself talked a lot, talked to the coaches a lot. We feel perfectly fine with keeping that team going at this point. We've done a good job getting some kiddos out there and the rest of the teams – I won't tell you they all have huge numbers, but … the kids are playing hard and are representing our school well.”

Athletic Director Allan Crocker added, the BRHS-Wiscasset boys soccer merger is official and five BRHS boys are joined up with Wiscasset Middle High School's soccer team.

“Every time I read the paper, I hear about a Boothbay kid scoring a goal, so I think they're pretty happy to be up there.”

Crocker also said that while he attempts to master Twitter as a social media tool for the sports teams, scores can be found under the athletics tab in the drop-down menu on the BRHS website.

Welch announced the BRHS parent and teacher open house is Thursday, Sept. 27. The digital portfolio initiative will be presented to staff and families.