FARMINGTON — With a focus on transparency, strategic planning and public discourse, the Regional School Unit 9 Board of Directors meeting April 29 featured key updates on the 2025–26 budget, district technology procurement, and a public comment addressing recent controversy.
Superintendent Christian Elkington highlighted the proposed budget in his April 18 newsletter, describing it as a balanced plan to maintain programming while keeping cost increases minimal. “This year’s budget is intentionally less than the previous year, with a modest increase of 0.54% budget-to-budget,” Elkington wrote. “This translates to an average increase of 1.24% across our 10 towns.”
Amid inflation and rising costs, Elkington said the budget was a “significant achievement and a testament to our commitment to careful resource management while continuing to offer programs and activities which support our tradition of meeting our students’ multiple needs.”
He noted that no RSU 9 employees would lose jobs as a result of staffing adjustments. “Our focus has been on retaining those we have hired previously who have invested in us as we have invested in them,” Elkington stated. Vacant or soon-to-be-retired positions were not refilled, and resources were reallocated to preserve programming.
The superintendent also acknowledged upcoming improvements to student safety infrastructure. Two new AED [Automated External Defibrillator] units will be installed at Mt. Blue Middle School and its nearby athletic fields. The decision followed a recent student medical emergency and was quickly supported by Director of Finance Tina Gamache and Head Nurse Janneke Strickland.
Elkington shared a memorandum of understanding with the Maine Math and Science Alliance, which will allow Foster Career and Technical Education Center and Mt. Blue High School to partner on the Rural Energy Futures initiative. The agreement offers students and staff the chance to learn about workforce trends and energy issues affecting rural Maine.
The meeting also addressed delays in the MLTI [Maine Learning Technology Initiative] device procurement process. In a statement from the Maine Department of Education, MLTI Coordinator Emma-Marie Banks noted, “Rising costs, inflation, tariffs, and other budgetary pressures are creating an environment of uncertainty … although we are in the last stages of this process, we are unable to provide details until specifics have been finalized.”
During the public comment period, former board Chair Carol Coles of Starks addressed concerns raised at the April 8 meeting, where a petition had made allegations about district leadership.
“The petition made serious allegations … that were not supported by facts or specifics. It sought to demean our district, its employees and the superintendent,” Coles said. “Innuendo and slander are never productive, but always damaging.”
Coles urged parents to follow the district’s chain of command when raising concerns. “When concerns arise … it’s encouraged that they bring it immediately to the attention of the teacher,” she said. “If concerns remain unresolved, then the issue should be brought to the assistant principal, etc., up the chain.”
She concluded by thanking the board members for their service, adding, “Education in the year 2025 is definitely complex. Solutions can be very elusive. But I ask that you not take this petition seriously if it is indeed brought back to this board.”
Chair Dorothy Robinson thanked Coles for her remarks.
