 Leigh Guildford (right, foreground) extends his hand to congratulate Bill Webster (left) moments after Webster was named superintendent of the new Regional School Unit 24. Picking up their papers at the table are Geoff Zentz (right) of Steuben, and behind him, Richard Malaby of Hancock.—STAFF PHOTO BY JACQUELINE WEAVER District Extends from Ellsworth to Steuben
ELLSWORTH — In its first major task, the newly formed Regional School Unit (RSU) 24 board Tuesday night appointed Bill Webster superintendent of the 12-municipality entity. Webster has been superintendent of School Union 96 for the past three years. Webster was one of four finalists for the position following a screening of candidates by the Maine School Management Association, said Omar Norton, interim superintendent of School Union 92. Norton was acting as interim secretary of the new unit. He said members of the RSU board had the opportunity to examine the candidates’ qualifications prior to the meeting. The board, in its inaugural meeting Tuesday night at Ellsworth High School, quickly moved through an agenda that ranged from an explanation of the weighted voting system — which is based on the population of each city and town — to a proposed calendar for future meetings. The board then entered into executive session and emerged 35 minutes later and voted unanimously to appoint Webster superintendent. Terms of his contract and tenure will be negotiated with the board within the next few weeks. “I am humbled and honored and look forward to working with the RSU,” Webster said as board members moved forward to congratulate him. RSU 24 includes Ellsworth, Eastbrook, Franklin, Gouldsboro, Hancock, Lamoine, Mariaville, Sorrento, Steuben, Sullivan, Waltham and Winter Harbor. RSU 24 is operating in tandem with existing school boards, whose work will end June 30. Major issues such as teacher contracts will be decided by the RSU 24 board, Webster said. He said local school boards are concentrating on issues that need immediate action and also are serving in an advisory capacity in the preparation of each municipality’s respective budgets. In other action, the board appointed Michael Pinkham of Sullivan, chairman of the Flanders Bay School Board, as chairman of the RSU 24 board until July 1. Julie Curtis of Eastbrook was voted in as vice chairman. Dick Gray, chairman of the Ellsworth School Committee, also was nominated to be chairman, but Pinkham carried the majority of votes in the first exercise of the board’s weighted voting system. Gray declined the subsequent nomination to be vice chairman. Earlier in the evening, Webster presented an outline of tasks and challenges the board can expect in the coming months, one of which is a decision on what staff in superintendents’ offices will have jobs in the new system. The plan for the new RSU 24 stipulates that one of the three existing superintendents’ offices be closed, but no decision has been made on whether it will be Union 96 in Gouldsboro, Union 92 in Ellsworth or the Ellsworth office. Among the other areas to be addressed, Webster said, are everything from accounting and payroll to athletics, insurance, technology, transportation, budgeting, curriculum and what to do about the Beech Hill School in Otis, which is shared by the towns of Mariaville and Otis. Mariaville voted to join RSU 24, but Otis voters opted not to join. Webster said initially the overriding issue is for board members to find a common meeting ground and a way of working together. “I think some of the biggest challenges are the newest of all this, of towns that have been working independently of each other now coming together as one district,” he said Wednesday. “School boards have developed their own culture. We’re going to have to find our way, a new way. Over time board members will think more and more of themselves as representing all of the students in RSU 24, not just their respective municipalities.” Under the tentative meeting calendar that was approved the board would meet the third Tuesday of each month except during school vacation weeks, when it would meet the second Tuesday of the month. Board subcommittee meetings would take place, if needed, on the first Tuesday of the month. For the first several months the board meetings would rotate among all of the schools in RSU 24.
This story was last updated at 4:29 p.m. on March 4, 2009. The comments listed below are the opinion of the listed author and do not necessarily represent those of Ellsworth American, Inc. 1. RSU 24 Board and Due Diligence
Henri Gignoux I attended the inaugural meeting of the RSU 24 Board of Directors at Ellsworth High School. First I want to congratulate the 16 members of the board and wish them good luck as they begin the taunting task in melding the RSU 24 together from the three separate school systems.
After electing Mike Pinkham of Sullivan to be the board chair and hearing from the three superintendents on the transition work completed to date, the board entered executive session to discuss the search for a superintendent to guide the RSU 24. The board returned to open session after 40 minutes and unanimously voted to appoint the Union 96 superintendent, Bill Webster, to be superintendent of the RSU 24. Congratulations to Mr. Webster for his appointment.
However I wonder if the board has performed due diligence in its selection of Mr. Webster after such a short period of discussion and reflection. The interim RSU board had authorized in January the advertisement and initial review of new superintendent by the Maine School Management Association (MSMA). It is my understanding that MSMA had forwarded to the RSU 24 Interim Secretary, Omar Norton, a number of applicants that included Mr. Webster. Some, but not all, of the board members had reviewed these applications beforehand in Mr. Norton’s office. I can not understand how a board of 16 members could have come to an informed decision on the best candidate for superintendent in such a short time period.
Normal procedure for hiring a superintendent is for the board to decide on the important issues and skills a new superintendent should have, form a search committee to conduct the initial interviews and propose one or more candidates for the entire board to interview and consider. This could not have happened in this case.
I am not suggesting that Mr. Webster would not have been the successful candidate if the board had chosen to exercise due diligence. He may very well have. We will never know if the RSU has hired the best qualified candidate to lead this school district.
Hopefully the board will settle down and make informed decisions as they move forward. Our schools, students and communities deserve no less. 2. RSU Board is Ready to Move Forward!
Dick Gray Henri,
I first want to thank you for all your work on the Regional Planning Committee (RPC) as we all spent the time required to get things “up and operating”. Although you and I did not always agree on everything we discussed, I always appreciated you looking at things from an area and/or angle that the rest of us might have not noticed! Sometimes we had to agree to disagree, which is fine also, as points were made and considered. It was also great to see you attending our first RSU Board Meeting after you worked so hard to help us bring things to this point in the process.
I guess your comments in your posting on here concerned me a bit, as they pertained to our (the RSU Board) selection of Bill Webster as our Superintendent. I will attempt to go through your letter and see if I can assure you that we in fact did comply with any and all requirements for selecting a Superintendent and how we accomplished it.
I am sure you are aware that items discussed in Executive Sessions must remain within the confines of that session, and I am sure you also realize that the Confidentiality of Applicants and their applications must also be preserved. With these items in mind, I will attempt to put to rest your concerns that we erred in performing our duties.
First off, I am not sure that you are aware that we "Elected RSU Board members" went into the U-92 Office individually, signed Confidentiality statements/sheets and reviewed all applications. We then each graded them separately in a private room, and personally returned everything to the RSU Secretary to lock up. These were tallied & brought to the Executive Session by the RSU Secretary, along with all the applications. These applications were reviewed by the members that had not been able to get in to the U-92 Office earlier. All reviews were reviewed, Bill was a clear cut winner, and we discussed anything and everything concerning the Applicants that any RSU Board member desired to discuss, and to a person everyone felt that the Applicant best suited to assume the duties as the RSU Superintendent had in fact risen to the top, and that they were ready to come out of Executive Session and vote. And as you know, we did exactly that, and it was as you state, except it was a unanimous Vote 14 – 0 vice 16 – 0.
So as you can see, this screening of Applications was not done by the entire RSU Board in the time span that you mention.
As for as your mention of bringing people in for interviews and sitting up Committees, etc., that is certainly an option that was available to us had we opted to go in that direction. In this case we screened and graded all Applications, came up with a clear leader, and where we had worked with Bill Webster during the entire planning process, we had in effect been screening him for over a year and a half! The process certainly could have been drawn out in many ways, with the same end result.
I want to ensure everyone that the RSU-24 Board IS settled down, is ready to go to work, and have but ONE item uppermost in their mind, and that is to do the best job possible for ALL students in the RSU. We, to a person, KNOW that we have made the correct choice for a Gentleman to lead us forward from this day on to accomplish the Goals that have been set for everyone associated with RSU-24.
Welcome Aboard Bill!! The entire RSU-24 Board is standing firmly behind your Leadership as we all move forward from here now that you have assumed “Command”!
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