BELFAST - The board of directors for the newly-created Regional School Unit 71 met for the first time Tuesday. The unofficial “organizational meeting” included discussion of everything from when and where future meetings should be held to whom the board should hire as interim superintendent and when.

With the first official meeting still a week away, the nine-member board was limited in the actions it could take. However the group did elect officers.

David Crabiel of Belfast was picked for chairman, Caitlin Hills, also of Belfast, was elected vice chairwoman and Laura Newsom of Belmont was voted in as secretary. Hills was unable to attend but participated during a portion of the meeting by speakerphone.

Dozen-or-so members of the public who watched the meeting at the Troy Howard Middle School Library included three current RSU 20 directors, several members of the withdrawal and transition efforts and representatives the teachers’ union.

The long list of business before board included such basic concerns as what procedural standards to follow at meetings, whether to allow public comment, whether to film meetings, what kinds of minutes to keep and what training would be needed by or available to the board, whose nine members include seven first-time office holders.

Typically, the superintendent would advise but since RSU 71 is new and doesn’t have one yet, hiring an interim superintendent to get the fledgling district was put at the top of the list.

The interim superintendent will serve until July 1. At that point, the five towns — Belfast, Belmont, Morrill, Searsmont and Swanville — officially split from RSU 20 and assume authority over the schools under the banner of RSU 71.

Hiring an interim superintendent topped a to-do list presented to the board by Donald Berry of Belmont on behalf of the RSU 71 transition team on which he serves. The ad hoc group has carried forward the work of town withdrawal and reorganization committees. The transition team’s list included a recommendation to hire former SAD 34 and RSU 20 superintendent Bruce Mailloux.

During the RSU 20 withdrawal bids, Mailloux volunteered his services as a consultant to the Belfast withdrawal committee. Some of the new board members and officials seemed to anticipate his name coming forward before Berry made his presentation.

Larry Theye, who has served as interim secretary for the district in the lead up to Tuesday’s meeting, suggested that the board ask applicants whether they intended to seek the permanent position. 

“When there is an insider candidate, you really don’t get many good applicants from the outside,” he said.

Charles Grey, one of five board members from Belfast, said hiring a former superintendent could be at odds with the public perception of RSU 71 as a clean break from the old district.

Berry, a former Waldo County commissioner, acknowledged the possible objections but said the immediate needs of the district were more pressing. “You must have leadership in your system that understands the law of Maine and how it works,” he said. 

Ben Potter, of Belfast, called Mailloux’s availability “incredibly fortuitous,” and said the new board should accept the due dilligence of the transition team and reserve its own vetting process for the search for a permanent superintendent. 

The lack of broader interest in the position didn’t surprise Kristin Collins, the Belfast attorney who guided the five towns through the withdrawal process. Collins said the applicant pool includes many superintendents who are retired or near retirement. The job is short-term, it has the added challenge of launching a new school district and could require moving here from another part of the state. These factors, she said, could easily account for the poor showing.

“Literally, not a single person expressed interest,” she said.

Collins, who was there as a member of the audience, suggested the board to hire an interim superintendent quickly in light of a February deadline for signing administrators’ contracts, along with the many other details of the withdrawal agreement that will need to be dealt with before July.

“Dragging it out for three weeks is probably the worst thing you can do to get started,” she said. 

Mailloux served as superintendent of SAD 34 before the 2009 consolidation that created RSU 20. He oversaw the transition and remained with the district for three years. Like many, he traced the failure of the consolidation to the absence of incentives, like the new school buildings that came with the creation of the SADs in the 1960s.

RSU 20 weathered annual cuts in state aid and went over the “cliff” at the expiration of the federal stimulus plan during Mailloux’s tenure. Before he retired in 2012, he pitched a sweeping reorganization plan that would have closed schools and shuffled students in an effort to cut costs. The idea was widely panned in the community. He subsequently took a job as superintendent for the Vinalhaven school district and continues in that position today, working two days a week for the island.

The veteran administrator and grandfather of seven children was at the meeting Tuesday and he confirmed his interest in the interim RSU 71 superintendent post.

In response to questions about whether he would seek the permanent position, Mailloux said his superintendent’s license expires a year from July 1 and renewing it would require additional training he is not going to undertake. This fact alone wouldn’t preclude him from serving for a year in the permanent post. However, he added that when he left RSU 20 he made a decision that it was the end of his work as a full-time superintendent.

“I’m disappointed RSU 20 didn’t come together the way we hoped it would,” he said. There were “huge differences,” he said, between the finances of his former SAD 34 and Searsport-based SAD 56, he said. “The state never addressed that issue.” 
 

What happens next?

The board resolved to hold future meetings weekly on Monday nights at 7 p.m. in the Troy Howard Middle School library.

The  Jan. 26 meeting will be the first official board meeting. It will start with a 15-minute period set aside for public comment. The board will then hold an executive session to interview Mailloux, and may hold a vote after that on whether to hire him for the interim superintendent position.
 

Where can the public find information related to RSU 71?

At some point, a website, Crabiel said — the RSU71.org domain is available, and he said he is looking into building a site. In the meantime, he said, information will be posted to the Forming RSU 71 page on Facebook. The school board will also post public notices of meetings in newspapers and on municipal bulletin boards.

“Once the superintendent is in place, there will be an office,” he said. “Then there will be information there, as well.” 

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com