BILL PEARSON Tue, 05/11/2021 - 12:45pm
It was a night filled with good-byes as two Edgecomb school officials participated in their final meeting with the current committee. Chairman Tom Abello is leaving the board after eight years. Principal Ira Michaud will head to Nobleboro Central School next fall. Michaud recounted during the May 10 committee meeting how Abello led major changes in Edgecomb Eddy School. “When I started four years ago, it was your first year as chairman. In that time, there have been a lot of new programs, agreements, and you absolutely shifted how this school operates.Your leadership has been awesome, and I appreciate how you stood up for the school,” he said.
SUSAN JOHNS Sat, 05/08/2021 - 8:45am
Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12 plans to keep sending its pre-kindergarten Alna and Westport Island students to Edgecomb Eddy School past the 2023 end date of a pair of 2018 pacts with Edgecomb and Boothbay-Boothbay Harbor Community School District. In SVRSU’s Thursday night, May 6 board meeting and a phone interview the next day, Superintendent of Schools Howie Tuttle said the partnership works for everyone. And now Edgecomb wants to extend it, he said.
The board unanimously authorized Tuttle to extend it another five years. He said Friday, he did not know if the extension will run five years from now or five years from 2023, for a 2028 end date, but either way, he would take it.
Sheepscot Valley-area finances feeling effect of students staying home
With more students opting to learn at home, Regional School Unit 12 is receiving fewer subsidies and seeing a financial impact to its budget.
Emily Duggan via Zoom
SOMERVILLE Regional School Unit 12 is feeling the effect of more students opting to learn at home this year.
RSU 12 Superintendent Howie Tuttle told the school board Thursday night it was one of the “most difficult” years the district has seen. He presented his 2021-2022 spending plan to the board, noting a nearly $400,000 reduction in subsidies due to students picking homeschooling this year.
Tuttle is proposing a $24.78 million spending plan, an increase of $993,133 or 4.1% from the current year’s budget.
SUSAN JOHNS
SVRSU students return to school in September. File photo
With one possible exception, none of Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12 schools’ COVID-19 cases this fall resulted from exposure at school, Superintendent of Schools Howie Tuttle told the board of directors Dec. 10.
Recapping COVID-19 incidents the district has faced since it resumed offering fully in-person learning Sept. 2, Tuttle said the case count did not include any positive results for remote learners, since exposure would not have been an issue. He said when an in-person learner or staff member tests positive, “we have to follow a protocol from Maine (Center for Disease Control) and, depending on the close contacts and where did people go, we have quarantined the close contacts,” which many times has been a class, Tuttle said.
SUSAN JOHNS Sun, 12/13/2020 - 7:00am
Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12 is moving its longtime Wednesday early dismissal earlier to give teachers more time to meet their workloads in the pandemic. The board voted unanimously Dec. 10 to make the change next month and add workshop days in January and March. According to the meeting on the district’s YouTube channel, with most students back in school this fall, the remote learning option has added to teachers’ work, some more than others.
“We need to fix this problem, because it’s pretty stressful and it’s pretty difficult,” Superintendent of Schools Howie Tuttle said. He said teachers’ survey responses ranged from no new workload issues to “folks who were like, ready to quit. They were exhausted by this whole thing,” he told the board.