UNITY, Maine — After five years at the helm of the rural 11-town Regional School Unit 3, Superintendent Heather Perry will be heading south this summer to lead the Gorham School District.
“She’s done a lot of good work. She stayed really focused and moved us along the path to proficiency-based education before the state made it a mandatory thing,” Rachel Katz, an RSU 3 board member, said last week. “That has been very good for us, and challenging. [Perry] has been steadfast.”
The two school districts are quite different. Gorham, a town of more than 16,500 people, is a single-community school district. There are about 2,600 students from kindergarten to 12th grade spread out over five schools.
In RSU 3, a district that spreads out over the 440 square miles of Brooks, Freedom, Jackson, Knox, Liberty, Monroe, Montville, Thorndike, Troy, Unity and Waldo, there are nine schools and 1,450 students.
Perry said she is looking forward to the challenge and the change. The Machiasport native has spent years working in rural areas, including Greenville and Jackman.
“I’ve always wanted to be in the southern part of the state,” she said. “It’s a very different lifestyle, in terms of access to cultural amenities. Being able to go to a theater. Being able to go to a professional athletic event without driving three hours.”
But, she said, she wanted to find the right place.
“When Gorham came open, I did a lot of research. I found that their beliefs and philosophies very much aligned with mine,” she said. “I think it’s a good fit.”
Perry said she has enjoyed her stint in western Waldo County and is proud of the work the school district has done in the last five years.
“I think we’ve made a lot of great gains and progress here in RSU 3,” she said. “It’s an excellent school system. Everyone is focused on meeting the needs of the students. It’s been a wonderful community to work with. I’m going to miss that.”
She said she is especially pleased with the work to move the district’s schools to proficiency-based educational standards and to a common curriculum.
“We have a group of teachers, administrators and educational leaders all working toward a very clear and common goal,” Perry said. “We built curriculum, we built an assessment system, [and] we built a culture of collaboration across all the district.”
The outgoing superintendent said she also is happy that the district passed its budget every year.
“That’s something that’s required a great deal of effort and communication,” she said, adding that the current year’s budget stands at $19.2 million.
Perry said fiscal challenges will continue to be a reality for RSU 3 and most other districts across Maine.
“As the state subsidies continue to decline, we’ve got to find a way to pay for programs on the local level, and that’s going to continue to be a challenge,” she said. “The state every year seems to throw a new wrench in the works.”
Perry said she has heard the Maine School Management Association anticipates as many as 30 superintendent positions will be open this year.
“It is a lot,” she said. “It’s a high turnover rate. There’s not a lot of people jumping to be a superintendent.”