TOPSHAM

SAD 75 is hoping the second time will be the charm in its search for a new Bowdoin Central School principal.

A search committe put together to search for a replacement for longtime Principal George Jenkins, who is retiring at the end of the school year, interviewed six candidates and invited two candidates back for further interviews last month. While SAD 75 Superintendent Brad Smith said good candidates were in the mix, he noted the committee felt none were the right fit for the job.

“We certainly had high caliber folks with lots of different ideas and experiences but just did not feel like we have the match we want for Bowdoin Central School,” Smith told the SAD 75 school board last week. “The committee recommended to me that we reopen that position so that’s what we have done.”

Applications are due Friday, May 22 and the same search committee will continue its work to select a principal.

The board also heard an update on a policy regarding charter school students’ participation in extracurricular sports and activities at Mt. Ararat middle and high schools. Board member Linda Hall, who chairs the Policy Committee, said no conclusion has been reached. She said SAD 75 representatives attended a meeting of the Maine Charter School Commission earlier in the week, but the commission did not discuss the issue as had been scheduled.

Last month the school board heard from Harpswell Coastal Academy parents and a student who were upset some charter school students hadn’t been allowed to try out for sports teams. To resolve the immediate issue, the school board increased the number of participants in the two sports in question. For a long-term solution, the matter was sent to the Policy Committee for review.

According to an April 10 letter sent to Harpswell Coastal Academy’s head of school by Acting Education Commissioner Tom Desjardin: “The Department of Education has interpreted the statute to mean that the (school administration unit) has capacity as long it does not have to buy a new uniform or create a new spot on a team or arrange for any new transportation. The fact that more students try out for a limited amount of slots does not mean that the public charter school student can be summarily turned away.”

Smith said last week that the language in statute relative to homeschool, private and charter school student participation in extracurricular sports and activities are different.

“The commissioner has interpreted the language to say the impact is the same,” he said. “The question at heart is the issue of capacity, because capacity does not occur in the statue for homeschool students.”

The school board will meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 14, at the high school to meet with the school’s attorney to discuss this matter. No action is expected.

With state school construction funding approved for SAD 75, planning for a high school building project is underway. School board member Scott McKernan, chairperson of the Building Committee, said the public is invited to meetings, and to get updates or make comments on the high school construction project at construction.link75.org.

The committee wants to get input from the public and has two upcoming public visioning meetings. Those meetings will take place at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 19, at Mt. Ararat High School and 7 p.m. Thursday, June 4, in the Commons. Tours of the school will be offered after the meeting.

During the update on the Maine Region Ten Technical High School cooperative board’s April 27 meeting, Smith said Region Ten staff is going out of state to look at some all-day comprehensive high school models for career and technical education — combining Career and Technical Education (CTE) instruction with academic classes, “and see where road might lead us.”

Region Ten, which serves students from SAD 75, Brunswick School Department and Regional School Unit 5, has also been looking at a $10 million remodel for the last couple years. Because SAD 75 is looking at a construction project, Smith said SAD 75 has an opportunity to build within its high school an all new CTE program, as Sandford has done for a cost of $20 million.

If that happens the CTE school would change from a region to a center and be governed by the SAD 75 school board. The Region Ten cooperative board is interested in exploring the option, Smith said, noting it was said at that meeting, “It’s not about location. It’s about how do we do the very best for all of our students regardless of which of the sending communities they come from.”

There will be a public meeting on the Common Core standards at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 28, at Williams- Cone Elementary School, so school officials can share what these standards will look like in SAD 75 and field questions.

dmoore@timesrecord.com