After walking the halls of Wiscasset's schools again, Wayne Dorr said it felt like he'd never left the town where he served as superintendent years ago.

The school committee named him interim superintendent on January 30, effective February 3. But the Bowdoinham man had already started days earlier, on some key tasks toward building the new department that opens July 1.

The process will present questions that neither the Maine Department of Education, nor lawyers, will have answers for, said Dorr, Wiscasset's superintendent from 1998 to 2000.

For his part, one question with no answer yet is whether or not he'll seek to stay on as the permanent hire.

“It's too early to know,” he said.

Meanwhile, he's thrilled to be back, he said. He's been reconnecting with staff he knew from his past service in town.

“They've been wonderful,” Dorr said.

When he was last here, Wiscasset Middle School Principal Linda Bleile was still a teacher at the middle school.

“I had a very good working relationship with him,” Bleile said January 30. “And I'm looking forward to working with him again.

“He really cares about students and education, and it shows,” Bleile said.

Dorr said he likes challenges, as well as improving school systems and helping them feel better about themselves. “And Wiscasset provides all three,” he said.

The committee's vote to put Dorr in the temp slot was unanimous. Minutes later, Dorr called on everyone to work as a team.

“That's when I'm at my best, and from 47 years' experience, frankly, that's when people are at their best,” he said.

The former Camden superintendent said he’s exploring at least four possible financial models for the new department. “I’ll share that with you as soon as I get the fine points down,” he told committee members.

“It will provide you with some provocative thinking. Some of this is a new way to think about how you run a school system, in its business operations, and some of it looks very promising to  me.”

Other items he will be addressing include deed transfers; the transfer and possible digitizing of tens of thousands of pages of personnel files from Regional School Unit 12; and getting a Web domain, such as www.wiscassetpublicschools.org, he said.

“I don’t think you’ll see me with my feet up on the desk too often ...,” Dorr said.

But his second-floor office at the high school is right above the band room, so he does get to hum a lot, he said.