SALEM -– A MSAD #58 school board of directors meeting lasted nearly three hours last Thursday evening. The discussions largely pertained to information about upcoming maintenance and improvement projects.

Next Thursday should be a fairly different meeting with a recommendation from Superintendent Quenten Clark to cut all junior varsity high school sports and to shift all middle school sports to unisex teams. Clark is recommending that the board fund only high school varsity sports. He has also stated that he’d like to see the boys and girls play on the same middle school sports teams.

Earlier last month, Clark presented a reduced budget from the previous year down $550,000. The need for a reduced budget was due to a decline in state subsidy including a penalty for not complying with the reorganization laws.

The proposed cuts in sports would contribute to that savings by approximately $20,000. The savings from the recommended cuts in sports comes largely from coaches’ salaries and officials for games. In past board decisions, members cut certified officials from the middle school baseball and softball programs.

In board news, directors heard from senior Samantha Boyd who presented the plans for the senior class trip to Portland and Waterville. Her detailed presentation resulted in unanimous board support for approval of the class trip.

Members also agreed to meet with the MSAD #74 board and potentially other boards to see if they could find savings by sharing some services. On March 24, MSAD #74 superintendent Ken Clark sent a letter requesting discussion. MSAD #58 directors agreed with the request and asked Clark to respond by approving a draft letter.

Savings could be developed with such things as sharing the central administrative staff. This could result in significant savings for both districts, Clark had said.

In terms of school improvement projects, each building administrator works with district maintenance staff to develop a budget for funding requests. The Phillips school requested $69,000 for various improvements. Clark made his recommendation for $46,000 for board approval. Clark recommended not painting the Phillips school or other schools on schedule. Stratton had $81,000 of fund requests and Clark told the board that he recommended $2,000 in spending.

Strong requested $18,000 and Clark suggested $4,000. Kingfield was looking for $80,000 in improvements and Clark said that $8,000 was his recommendation.

The high school was hoping for $24,000 in improvements and Clark said he recommended $6,000 for upgrade projects.

The plan that evening was to hear recommendations from Clark and to update the board with the various projects and the school building needs. Directors are expected to take action making decisions on the school budget in weeks ahead.

The school board will continue to meet on Thursdays, with the exception of the vacation week, until the budget is completed.