Good Will-Hinckley announced Friday that former Regional School Unit 74 Superintendent Kenneth Coville has been chosen to serve as the organization’s president and director of development, while Rob Moody, who has been president on an interim basis, will become executive director.

Coville was picked recently by the Good Will-Hinckely board of directors to take over the president’s position at the Fairfield organization, which includes the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences, the organization announced in a news release Friday. He will begin his duties at the Fairfield campus on Aug. 29.

Kenneth Coville

The position has been filled on an interim basis since Glenn Cummings left in 2014 to become interim president at the University of Maine Augusta. The organization named Maine House Speaker Mark Eves, a North Berwick Democrat, president last year, but the offer was rescinded after Gov. Paul LePage threatened to cut the school’s funding.

“Mr. Coville is a proven educational leader, we are fortunate to have him join our team,” Moody said in a news release. “Ken brings a set of skills to help us build on our current strengths and realize the enormous potential and promise that this organization has.”

Moody has been vice president and chief operating officer at Good Will-Hinckley since 2013.

Board of directors Chairman Jack Moore described Coville and Moody as “our dream team.”

“Good Will-Hinckley is incredibly fortunate to have Ken Coville and Rob Moody leading this great organization,” he said in the release. “Ken and Rob have over 60 years of combined experience as Maine educators and an equally long track record as leaders that know how to best educate, nurture and support non-traditional students.”

Coville, 58, will oversee the advancement and development of the school, which serves 126 students. Moody will take over as executive director of the school, overseeing the organization’s internal operations.

According to Friday’s news release, in his 35 years in education, Coville has been a teacher, a principal, a special education director and a superintendent. Coville announced his retirement from RSU 74 in June, after heading the school district for 12 years. The district includes the towns of Anson, Embden and New Portland.

Coville began his education career at Good Will-Hinckely in 1981 as a teacher, after graduating that year from the University of Maine at Farmington. He then worked in the Rangeley school district as principal and then superintendent until 2004, when he was hired as the principal at Carrabec High School.

Coville also received a master’s degree in administration from the University of Maine in 1989.

In his new role at Good Will-Hinckley, Coville will be “keeping the school on its growth plan, supporting the development team as they develop advancing the organization and keeping the momentum on the capital campaign underway to develop the facilities required to serve more young people from all over Maine,” the release states.

Founded in the 1890s, the school has offered a residential education and social experience for generations of at-risk youth. In 2009, the school shut down its core service because of financial problems, but in 2012 it opened the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences, which became the state’s first charter high school. The organization also operates the Glenn Stratton Learning Center, a day program for students with significant social-emotional and behavioral challenges, and the L.C. Bates Museum.

The Eves controversy still hasn’t wound down, more than a year after it began. A federal judge in U.S. District Court in May dismissed a lawsuit Eves brought against the governor, accusing him of using the power of his office to prevent him from being hired, and contending his actions violated Eve’s constitutional right of free speech, association and political affiliation, as well as his right to due process. Eves is appealing the case to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.