FARMINGTON — Superintendent Christian Elkington told Regional School Unit 9 directors Thursday that a scaled-back equipment plan for the Bjorn Center culinary classroom at Mt. Blue Middle School in Farmington will save the district $72,000.

Having addressed safety questions from the Office of State Fire Marshal, the district can now order equipment, he said.

“We won’t be installing stoves or allowing anything to be fried as the expense for commercial hoods and infrastructure was just too high,” he explained, adding it would cost several hundred thousand dollars. “We instead will be using a convection oven. For our base equipment needs this will mean an expense reduction and savings of $72,000.” Changes to the curriculum menu will be minor and so students will still be able to have the strong experience Principal James Black and his staff had been planning, Elkington said.

“For what we need to accomplish and work with kids using a convection oven, it’s not going to really change too many of the recipes that our kids would be able to do,” he said. “The rest of the kitchen will be outfitted with all of the bells and whistles that we would need, so I don’t think it’s going to really be too much of a program change.”

Elkington discussed the district’s final budget for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, commending part-time grant specialist Deb Lajoie.

He thanked her “for her outstanding work in helping us follow through with the reporting and documenting procedures that the Maine Department of Education expected and implemented. We were able to support students, staff and families because of Deb’s knowledge, expertise, and tireless focus on details. We spent all but less than 1% because of her follow through.”

Elkington also shared a letter from the Maine Department of Education, explaining an adjustment to RSU 9’s prekindergarten subsidy allocation for the 2025 fiscal year. Department School Finance Coordinator Donna Tiner wrote, “When the FY 25 subsidy allocation was calculated in December 2024, we included estimated counts for the PreK program in your district. The FY 25 Subsidy allocation for RSU 9 included 30 estimated PreK students and 86 actual PreK students for a total of 116.” She said the actual count was 104, fewer than originally anticipated, resulting in a decrease of $108,434.02 to the district’s state subsidy allocation, which will be applied over the remaining five months of the subsidy.

Elkington pointed out that this type of revision is not unusual. “This can happen any year and did last year, as we need to share with the state an estimate each year,” he said. “Our remaining subsidy will be reduced by $108,432.02, or the amount per student the state had initially estimated they would be sending us.”

Elkington was asked about the district’s capacity for prekindergarten students.

“We can take 16 students per class,” he said. “We have six full-time teachers, so 96. We could take some more. The program at Cape Cod Hill School is a community-based program that can also take 16 PreK students, so upward of 112. If we have more students, we can take them but would have to add staffing.”

In staffing news, Elkington introduced Kathleen Joseph, the new robotics coach at Mt. Blue High School, and Craig Collins, the varsity football coach.

He acknowledged the resignations of Katie-Jean Clement, a physical education teacher at W.G. Mallett School/Cape Cod Hill School and Melissa Williams, director of Foster Career and Technical Education Center.

In addition, the district announced the retirements of Joan Gilbert, food service worker at Mt. Blue High School, and Tracy Williams, principal of W.G. Mallett School.

The next board meeting is scheduled for March 11 at 6:30 p.m. at the Mt. Blue Campus in Farmington.