Additional second grade teacher approved

RUMFORD -- At their meeting on Sept. 24, the RSU 10 Board of Directors approved the recommendation of Supt. Tom Ward for an additional second grade teacher at the Hartford-Sumner Elementary School.

Ward said the third teacher is needed because the two other second grades in the school have 24 students apiece. He said the target is about 17 or 18 per class at most.

Principal Ryan Wilkins said the grade 2 had 39 students at the end of the last school school. But add to that three retentions, followed by two more moving in, then more recently, four more students moving for the total of 48. Ward said that teacher will move with that grade in the future as long as needed.

In other business, an upsurge in the number of eighth-graders prompted the approval of a new position for Mountain Valley Middle School. Kim Clark was appointed to the position that is expected to end at the conclusion of the 2012-13 school year.

Mountain Valley High School Principal Matt Gilbert said his school's enrollment includes five foreign exchange students this year. They are from Denmark, Mexico, Cambodia and two from Germany.

The board approved moving a teacher workshop day from March 22 to March 18 so that a nationally known expert on mass customized learning can be scheduled to speak to RSU 10 and Region 9 School of Applied Technology staff.

RSU 10, like many other districts in the state, is beginning to change over to individualized learning programs for students. This is known as mass customized learning.

Former SAD 43 board member and current Rumford Selectman Jeff Sterling asked the RSU 10 board to consider the concept of regional budgets during the future development of school budgets.

Buckfield board member Maida Demers-Dobson was appointed as Maine School Management Association delegate from RSU 10.