DIXFIELD — The RSU 10 board will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 18, at Mountain Valley High School library in Rumford to begin the search for a new superintendent.

On Monday, the board approved contracting with the Maine School Management Association to assist in the search to replace Tom Ward, who has accepted the same position in RSU 9 in Farmington on July 1.

Ward said the goal is to have a new superintendent in place by Aug. 1.

“It’s an aggressive timeline,” he said Tuesday afternoon.

At the March 18 meeting, a subcommittee of the board will work on a timeline for and candidates to serve on the search committee. The five or six board, staff and community members will be appointed at the board meeting March 25 at Dirigo Elementary School in Dixfield.

RSU 10 includes the towns of Canton, Carthage, Dixfield, Peru, Buckfield, Hartford, Sumner, Byron, Mexico, Roxbury, Rumford and Hanover.

In other matters at Monday’s meeting, the board

* Accepted the resignation of 35-year veteran elementary school teacher June Giambattista.

* Approved of Ann Speth taking a group of high school students to Quebec for ski camp during Christmas vacation in December.

* Approved of a Buckfield Junior-Senior High School Principal senior class trip to New York City and Ocean Park, Md., during April vacation.

* Discussed the possibility of replacing some of the district’s laptops with iPads and refurbishing the laptops for the elementary school.

* Hired Stephen Arsenault as a bus driver/custodian for Mountain Valley Middle School in Mexico.