Wiscasset kindergarten and pre-K classes are getting another year in the state’s gold program that takes a positive approach to teaching the department’s youngest students, Curriculum Coordinator Patricia Watts said.

Wiscasset is nearing the end of its first year in the federally funded, state-administered pilot program, Watts said. She told the school committee April 27, the department had just gotten word it will get to stay in for the 2017-18 school year. Veazie and Regional School Unit 40, based in Union, are also taking part, she said.

In an interview afterward, Watts explained the program works through a grant but the school department gets materials and training, not money. The Maine Department of Education supplies it all with federal dollars, she said.

Watts told the committee, “The goal is to develop positive social and emotional behaviors, as well as moving along with the academic assessment and progress. The emphasis is on what the child can do, not what they can’t do.”

Watts also told the committee the department was continuing to look at summer school and whether to have it this year. It’s had high absenteeism and little gain in participating students’ reading and math skills; in some cases, skills have regressed, Watts said. The department is looking at alternatives to summer school, she said. In the interview, Watts said those may include giving students packets or possibly looking at Wiscasset Public Library’s summer program for children.

RHR Smith gets another year

The committee kept the department’s auditor, RHR Smith & Company of Buxton, for another year. The department agreed to pay the firm $11,500. It had bid $13,000, Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot said. She said an interview committee recommended keeping RHR Smith for a one-year term. The firm has agreed to address needs the department raised, she said. In seeking bids this spring, Wilmot cited the goal of improved communications so Finance Manager Shelley Schmal can have information when she needs it.

Further explaining the choice, Wilmot noted the firm is familiar with the issue still being worked on involving funds an audit showed the town owed the department.

Greg Chabot of RHR Smith told the committee the firm values its relationship with the department and supports the one-year term. “It keeps us on our toes.”

Other bidders were William H. Brewer of Bath, $11, 500; Berry Talbot Royer of Falmoth, $11,750; and Ron L. Beaulieu & Company of Portland. The firm submitted no cost sheet with its proposal and did not take part in the interviews that followed bidding, school officials said Friday.

Also April 27, Wilmot announced Wiscasset Elementary School fifth grade teacher Nancy Erkman is retiring. Erkman drew praise from parents in the audience, including Kim Andersson. She said Erkman taught her son to write and helped her daughter love science and become an avid reader. “Just a terrific teacher,” Andersson said.