The superintendent of Westbrook schools is the leading candidate to be head of the Mount Desert Island Regional School System.

Marc Gousse, who was the principal of Westbrook High School for 10 years and has been superintendent since 2011, will visit the Bar Harbor-based district to meet administrators, staff members and the community on Thursday.

Charles Wray, chairman of the district’s school board, said other candidates have not been eliminated but Gousse is the only one who has been invited to visit the district. “He’s the one that we think is a good match,” Wray said.

Gousse said he is happy in Westbrook and wasn’t looking for a job, but was approached by someone from the area a year ago and again about a month ago, after the Mount Desert Island district’s initial search for a replacement for retiring Superintendent Howard Colter didn’t yield the right candidate.

Gousse, 55, who is a graduate of Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, said he and his wife spend a lot of time in Down East Maine and had planned to move there eventually. “It’s an opportunity,” he said.

Westbrook School Committee Chairman Jim Violette said that Gousse has turned the school district in the right direction since coming on as superintendent in a difficult financial situation, and that he would be disappointed to see him leave. Asked whether he’s made a decision about taking the job, Gousse said, “I wouldn’t foresee any hurdles if I were fortunate enough to be offered a position.”

Also known as Alternative Organizational Structure 91, the Mount Desert district has about 1,400 students in nine schools and an annual budget of about $30 million. The Westbrook School Department has more than 2,500 students in six schools and a budget around $35 million.

Leslie Bridgers can be contacted at 791-6364 or at:

lbridgers@pressherald.com

Twitter: lesliebridgers

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