FARMINGTON – The Regional School Unit 9 Board of Directors highlighted the endeavors of their sports program on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

Cyndi Pratt, director of student activities sat before the board and spoke about the quality of the program since joining RSU 9 in August. “I hit the ground running and it doesn’t really feel like I’ve slowed down yet,” she commented.

“I think we had a really successful fall season, and things are quickly gearing up for the winter season,” Pratt stated.

Mt. Blue High School saw an influx of students in field hockey and boys’ soccer, having a roster size big enough to warrant a Varsity and JV team.

A request was made to approve a Cross Country Field Trip to the New England Cross Country Championships at Ponaganset High School in Rhode Island. Students Cryus Evans and Henri McCourt qualified with their performance in the State Cross Country Meet Oct. 29. The motion was approved unanimously.

Director Gloria McGraw of Farmington commented that a committee had formed at the boosters meeting the night before around the subject of turf and AstroTurf. She stated the committee will gather information to bring to the board in the future. “There was a lot of expertise already there,” she said.

Superintendent Christian Elkington also highlighted the boys and girls cross-country and girls’ soccer teams for each earning sportsmanship awards, saying, “Once again, we continue to work hard on the playing fields and still are good sports when it comes to how we treat officials, how we treat the other teams, spectators and, of course, the other players.”

Joining Pratt in the administrative report was Kevin Bremner, director of technology. Bremner presented two updates, the first being that all outdated firewalls had been replaced except for one department.

The second involved an estimated delivery date of copiers for the district. According to Bremner, the copiers should be delivered by the end of December. “A few months behind, but hopefully that will happen soon,” he stated.

Director Alexander Creznic of Farmington asked Bremner to expand on cybersecurity initiatives that he mentioned in his report. Bremner responded, “As it stands right now, we really don’t have any sort of cohesive plan. Over the years, we’ve just put things in place to make the network more secure.”

Bremner said cybersecurity is a very important topic and hopes in the next few months he and his staff will have put together the preliminary work for a larger plan for cybersecurity.

Elkington added that over the next six to eight months, he will be working with Bremner to craft a 10-year technology plan to be approved in the fall of next year.

In new business, 10 policies were brought forward for revision and review. A motion was made and seconded, leading to discussion. Director Judith ‘Libby’ Kaut of New Sharon shared her contention with the last four policies in review. The changes made were regarding suspension and expulsion.

Creznic moved to amend the motion, approving the first six policy changes and excluding the last four. Charles Hind of New Vineyard seconded the motion, adding to the discussion, “I’m not gonna call a ‘her’ a ‘he’ or a ‘he’ a ‘she’, so just to let you know that.”

Dorothy Robinson of Chesterville said, “Its not saying that your gonna call ‘he’ a ‘she’, it’s changing ‘he/she’ to ‘they/they’re’. It’s not changing the gender, just to clarify.”

The motion to amend the motion failed with Creznic and Kaut voting in favor with 11 opposed.

As originally presented, all 10 policies were approved. 12 voted in favor of the revisions with Creznic, Kaut and Hinds opposed.

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