Wiscasset High School Principal Cheri Towle and Wiscasset Primary School Principal Mona Schlein will each have more grades to manage next fall, when the town goes from having three schools to two. The principals said the next school year will be a challenge, but it’s one they are looking forward to.

“I’m so excited because I’ll know all the fifth and sixth graders,” Schlein said in a telephone interview March 20. She plans to have the older students serve as ambassadors for the younger ones.

The added grades mean Schlein will have more teacher evaluations to do; she said the evaluations are a huge amount of work, but that she is confident she will get everything done.

Towle said being principal for grades seven through 12 will be an exciting opportunity, personally and professionally.

“I am eager to build a school community that makes a difference in the lives of students,” she writes in a March 19 email response to the Wiscasset Newspaper.

The seventh and eighth grades’ arrival just as the school moves to proficiency-based diplomas will take strong relationships with teachers, students, parents and the community, Towle continues.

“By getting each child two years earlier, I have more time to get to know each child and build upon each child’s own goals, to help them be successful beyond Wiscasset High School,” Towle adds.

Asked about the increased workload, Towle writes, “Bring it on. I am excited for the new school school year, the new school community and the future of Wiscasset School Department.

“While next year will be a challenge, challenges are often rewarding. It is working through (them) that we often learn the most and create outstanding outcomes for students.”

Towle said she views every child as if they were her own.

One will be. Towle’s son, Noah Towle, will be a freshman at Wiscasset High next fall.

Wiscasset will save about $100,000 a year in pay and benefits by having one less administrator, Interim Superintendent of Schools Lyford Beverage said.

Bruce Scally has served as Wiscasset Middle School’s interim principal this school year. Longtime principal Linda Bleile retired in 2014.