Paul Mosley

Nathan Carlow

BUXTON — The vice chairman of the SAD 6 board has resigned, the second member to go in less than three weeks.

Paul Mosley of Standish, 66, citing personal reasons, resigned on Monday in an email to the School Board’s executive secretary.

“It is in deep regret that I need to inform you that I am resigning from the MSAD 6 Board of Directors effective immediately,” Mosley wrote. “My current employment is out of the district area and continues to require more of my time.”

Mosley, who was re-elected last year to a three-year term, was chairman of the School Board’s Finance-Facilities Committee. He declined to comment t when contacted by telephone Tuesday.

Mosley exits on the heels of Phil Pomerleau who resigned Feb. 27, unhappy with the School Board’s process as it looked for a new superintendent. Mosley becomes the fourth board member to resign in the past nine months during the School Board’s searches for an interim superintendent and then superintendent.

SAD 6 includes Buxton, Frye Island, Hollis, Limington and Standish. The SAD 6 central office is in Buxton. The embattled district operated for months without a permanent superintendent.

The School Board named Paul Penna as superintendent on March 6 following  an internal-only search in the district. Penna on March 8 declined an interview with the American Journal unless questions were provided in advance.

Penna, a former Bonny Eagle High School principal, became interim superintendent on Aug. 1. Penna succeeds Frank Sherburne, the superintendent who resigned in May in a controversial nepotism uproar stemming from the school district hiring Sherburne’s son.

The School Board had named Assistant Superintendent Michael Roy as the interim when Sherburne left.

Mosley addressed his resignation email, which was sent the afternoon of March 20, to Hedy Smith, executive secretary of the School Board.

Coming just hours before the board voted Monday to set Penna’s salary, the resignation appeared to be a surprise.

“It was news to me when I walked in,” said School Board Chairman Lester Harmon of Hollis, following Monday’s meeting.

The School Board unanimously Monday set Penna’s salary at $128,000 for the remainder of this school year, Harmon said after the meeting. That is the same same salary Penna received as interim superintendent and it’s $6,000 more than that of Sherburne.

SAD 6 has been reeling for months. Last July, two School Board members from Limington resigned after walking out of a meeting on July 25, meeting minutes show, when the School Board had two executive sessions with a consultant in a search for an interim superintendent.

Debra Black and Charlotte Dufresne submitted letters of resignation from the board the next day. Neither letter contained any reasons behind their resignations.

Black and Dufresne were succeeded as Limington representatives to the board by Raymond Cullen and Julie Bruni. First appointed, they were elected this month.

Bruni had not been sworn in yet, according to school officials, but she was allowed to be seated with the board in Monday’s meeting that included two executive sessions. However, Bruni’s votes during Monday’s meeting were not to be counted, it was announced.

Mosley’s departure comes as the school district is preparing its budget.

Standish Town Clerk Mary Chapman said Tuesday the Town Council has the option of filling the seats vacated by Pomerleau and Mosley before the June election. But Chapman said nomination papers are available for SAD 6 seats.

One candidate, Nathan Carlow of Buxton, 17,  a Bonny Eagle High School junior, took out nomination papers Monday for a two-year term.

Carlow, now a student representative on the School Board, said before Monday’s meeting he is running to have “more” of a voice with a vote that counts.

He will turn 18 in May and the municipal election is in June. He appears to meet candidate qualifications.

 “As long as a candidate is 18 years of age, by Election Day and they are all set with the other qualifications, they are good to go,” Buxton Town Clerk John Myers said in an email response to the American Journal.

Carlow is the son of Michele and Pete Boudreau of Buxton. “My parents are all for it, full support,” he said about his School Board bid.

Robert Lowell can be reached at 854-2577 or rlowell@keepmecurrent.com.

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