Wiscasset Primary School’s top administrators are getting new, key jobs with the Wiscasset School Department as the town exits Regional School Unit 12. Assistant Principal Mona Schlein is moving up to principal. And WPS Principal Patricia Watts will be the system’s curriculum coordinator.

The school committee made the picks at its May 22 meeting.

Schlein, 58, of Arrowsic  will be in her 27th year at Wiscasset Primary when she takes the top spot. She plans to share the school’s leadership with the teachers, an approach which has tremendous value, she said in an interview after Thursday’s meeting.

“This is an amazing school with extremely dedicated professionals. I’m honored to share leadership,” she said.

Schlein is a certified literacy coach with the Maine Partnership in Comprehensive Literacy, and was part of the Maine Department of Education’s literacy teachers’ team.

She taught in a school in New  York City before taking a teaching job at Wiscasset Primary. Asked about becoming principal nearly three decades later, Schlein said, “I’m really committed to this community. I’m really committed to this school. So it is an accomplishment for me.”

RSU 12’s board recently accepted Watts’ retirement from her multiple roles with the district: the principal’s job and the position of curriculum coordinator and assistant superintendent. The Richmond woman is a past principal of schools in Lincolnville and Skowhegan, and is a former curriculum coordinator for School Administrative District 4 in Guilford.

Watts said she was excited about her new, part-time position in Wiscasset’s school system. “That is my love, curriculum: Looking at the data, determining what we need for programming (and) what we need for professional development.”

In other hiring decisions Thursday, the committee named John Merry for director of transportation and maintenance; Lorie Johnson, food services director; Stacey Souza, administrative assistant to the superintendent; Rita Trann, special education teacher in the resource room at Wiscasset High School; Michelle Benham, Title One Literacy educational technician at Wiscasset Primary; Holly Morgan, behavior resource room teacher at the primary school; and Stacylynn Rouleau, English and language arts teacher at Wiscasset Middle School.

Search on for next temp superintendent

School committee members agreed Thursday that when Interim Superintendent Wayne Dorr leaves that temp slot, they will replace him with another interim superintendent, not a permanent one. The possibility of joining Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS) 98 that serves the Boothbay peninsula and Georgetown, continues to be explored; joining with other towns would include sharing their superintendent.

“That is a great approach,” Chairman Glen Craig said about continuing to have an interim superintendent.

Dorr said later that he will not seek to renew his contract that ends July 1. However, he will stay on for a limited time past that date if needed, he said.

Helping start a new school department was all he had hoped it would be, Dorr said. “It’s been a wonderful experience. I got to see a town come together.”