BELFAST, Maine — There’s a new superintendent for Regional School Unit 71, and school board Chairman David Crabiel said that he thinks it is a great match for the community.
The school board unanimously chose Dr. Paul D. Knowles this week to helm the five-town district, which includes Belfast, Belmont, Morrill, Searsmont and Swanville.
“We are very excited to have Dr. Knowles join our district,” Crabiel said. “We are confident that his leadership will help move our school system forward in meeting our vision and commitment for all children.”
Knowles will start work July 1 in the new district, formed last Election Day when voters in the five towns decided to leave RSU 20. The 58-year-old Winthrop resident most recently has worked as a lecturer of educational leadership at the University of Maine, but before that, he spent seven years as the superintendent of RSU 11 in Gardiner.
“This is a new district,” he said Thursday. “In the sense of looking to the future, the board is very, very student-focused, and that’s where my values and beliefs lie. We need to be student-focused. It is all about the students.”
Knowles said that he is from Waldo County, having grown up in Frankfort and attended Searsport District High School. Before becoming a school administrator, the University of Farmington graduate taught English for more than a dozen years in Lincoln, Solon, Madison and Wiscasset, among other communities. He also worked as a middle school and high school principal.
“As soon as I come on board, I want to meet people and learn what they have to say about the communities and the schools,” he said. “And start building those working relationships.”
The incoming superintendent was chosen by a 14-member search committee that included community members, teachers, school administrators and school board members. He said that he believes the biggest challenges to the new district will be creating a budget and also “redefining itself.”
Over the last few years, RSU 20 — formed under the controversial 2008 school consolidation law — has been plagued by budget turmoil and the perception that the board of directors had a hard time working together to get things done.
“Who are we as a system?” Knowles asked. “Where do we want to take ourselves? Certainly we’ll be involving the community in that decision-making process.”
During his time heading the Gardiner school district, Knowles said he is proudest of having developed good working relationships with staff and community members, and also of an “academic audit,” designed to look deeply at the experiences children were having at the schools.
“We were looking into what was working well and what wasn’t,” he said.
Knowles said that he is very familiar with the financial challenges facing districts all over the state in an era that seems to shift more of the funding from state and federal sources to property taxpayers.
“It’s a hard balance,” he said. “What are the students’ needs, and how best to provide them with a magical education? Then balance that with the [financial] impact.”