VEAZIE, Maine — A veteran SAD 22 official has been chosen to provide superintendent services in Veazie for the 2013-14 school year — the first since residents voted last November to pull out of RSU 26.
SAD 22 Superintendent Rick Lyons, who now oversees schools in Hampden, Winterport, Newburgh and soon Frankfort, has agreed to provide his services to Veazie for $25,000 a year under a one-year contract approved earlier this week by the town’s interim school committee.
The SAD 22 committee voted earlier this year to allow Lyons to contract with Veazie if he was asked and if he chose to do so.
Before their decision to contract superintendent services from Lyons, Veazie school officials also considered appointing Veazie Community School Principal Scott Nichols to the post, which would have required a conditional certification from the Maine Department of Education; and contracting superintendent services with Orono, which also is searching for a superintendent.
Orono, however, indicated that it is not interested in such an agreement at this time.
In separate referendums last November, residents of Glenburn and Veazie — two of the three towns that make up RSU 26 — voted to pull out of the school district they formed less than three years ago, leaving Orono the only member.
Heartburn over cost-sharing and a desire to regain control over local education were cited by residents of both Veazie and Glenburn as reasons for withdrawing. They also balked at the regional school unit’s system of weighted votes.
The withdrawals take effect on July 1.
Chairwoman Janine Raquet said earlier that the five-member interim board’s role was to make sure Veazie’s transition to an independent school unit went smoothly. Long-term decisions — including determining how superintendent services will be provided and by whom beyond the transitional year — will be the responsibility of the permanent Veazie school board, which will be elected in June.