BREWER, Maine — School officials have hired the principal of a coastal Maine high school to lead the Brewer School Department as its next superintendent.
The Brewer School Committee unanimously voted Monday night to sign an employment agreement with Cheri Towle, who has worked as principal of Wiscasset High School since May 2014. Before that, Towle spent three years as principal at Mount View High School in Thorndike.
Towle, who was raised in Connecticut, has spent the past 23 years in education in Maine, mostly as a teacher in middle and high schools.
“I’m the first college graduate of my family,” Towle said, adding that she believes every student is capable of reaching their goals. She said she has two children in college and one in high school.
She said one of her main focuses will be assessing Brewer’s progress toward proficiency-based education.
School board Chairman Kevin Forrest said the board conducted two lengthy interviews with Towle, who was one of 15 applicants for the position.
Brewer’s former superintendent, Jay McIntire, left the district earlier this summer, several months after the school board made a controversial 3-2 vote not to renew his contract.
Allan Snell, who served as Brewer’s superintendent from 1996 to 2001, has been filling in as interim superintendent since McIntire’s contract expired in June.
Forrest said Towle will make $108,500 per year over the three-year term of her initial contract. She’s scheduled to start work in late October.
Brewer has an ordinance that requires its superintendent to live within city limits, so Towle may have to relocate. Concerned about how such a rule might limit the field of potential qualified applicants, several city officials have sought to kill that ordinance.
During June elections, a majority voters favored ending the residency requirement, but the voter turnout was smaller than what would have been needed to make the vote valid.
That question will appear again on November’s ballot, when it’s likely more voters will turn out, giving the measure a better chance of passing.
Voters also will decide whether they want the authority to recall school committee members. They already have that option with city councilors.
In other business Monday, Julie Milan, one of five members of the school committee, resigned because she is moving out of the district.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.