Dear Citizens of the
Superintendent’s Report January 2006
- Dr. Kenneth R. Dassau
The SAU administrative team provides management services to each of the three districts. The administrative staff of SAU 38 has undergone several personnel transitions with the departure of Curtis J. Cardine last March. At that time I was appointed as interim superintendent, and in August, I was honored by the SAU Board’s decision to have me serve as the superintendent of SAU 38. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish Curt the best of health and thank him for his years of service to SAU 38, its staff, students and school communities.
March 2005 also brought the departure of Dr. Dan Lafleur as the special services coordinator. In July, the SAU hired Dr. Rick Matte to replace Dr. Lafleur. I thank Dan for his work on behalf of our students and staff and welcome Dr. Matte.
Last year, Mr. Larry Biron announced his decision to retire. At the time of his hiring Mr. Biron’s service and professionalism filled a vacuum in the financial affairs that existed at the SAU. His has set a tone and direction towards defining the qualifications of his successor. I am grateful for his counsel to me in my first year as superintendent. I want to thank Larry for his 6 years of dedicated service to SAU 38. We all wish him well!
We advertised for a business manager and we will soon be convening a search committee to review the applications. The SAU 38 board and administration will optimistically plan to announce a new hire in late March or early April.
I am pleased to report on the Board’s decision in December to appoint Dr. David Hodgdon as the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. At that time the Board also appointed Ms. Jude Bischoff as the interim director of special education, and Sanda “Sam” Romano as the interim coordinator. A search for a permanent replacement for the position of special education director is also underway.
In our efforts to improve services and to continue to address issues raised by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the SAU administrative team and I will be pursuing ways to improve the monitoring and recording of teacher certification, the SAU staff development master plan, and student assessment and reporting through data warehousing.
In closing, I want to acknowledge the support and work of the SAU office staff and the SAU Board for their patience, cooperation and assistance.
Transitions: I am happy to welcome and
congratulate Mr. Joe Smith for his
appointment as principal of
The reports of the principals and
district administrators will address our curricular and assessment initiatives
and responses to the federal No Child Left Behind
Act. The high school principal’s report
will include the school’s accreditation status by the
Reported Deficit in MRSD
After the district’s financial
audit at the close of the fiscal year, it was reported in July that the
district had overspent its appropriation by $210,147. Due to the reported deficit, the Budget Committee formed a Budget Oversight Committee. The
function of the Oversight Committee is to meet monthly with the superintendent
and business manager to review district expenses and revenues. The committee is
chaired by Mr. Neil Moriarty. The
other two members are the budget committee’s chairperson Mrs. Jane Fortson, and budget committee member Mr. Richard Bauries. As of this writing,
I am pleased to report that through administrative activities to reduce expenses
and the additional receipt of unanticipated revenue --especially through the
federal
The