TOPSHAM — The School Administrative District 75 Board of Directors on July 28 unanimously approved the hiring of Elaine Dow as interim assistant superintendent.

The Brunswick resident, who also held the temporary job last year, will serve through June 30, 2012. Applications will be sought again in late winter or early next spring for a permanent assistant  superintendent.

Brad Smith, who replaced Mike Wilhelm as superintendent last month and was assistant superintendent since October, said 15 candidates applied for the job and five were interviewed. Dow was not one of the applicants, but was instead approached by Smith about serving in the interim capacity.

“We were pleased with the quality of candidates who applied and were interviewed for the position,” Smith said in an e-mail. “Ultimately we determined that the best course of action was to employ a one-year interim assistant and reopen the position next winter/spring.”

Dow, 64, has been a Maine educator for 31 years. She was the district’s interim assistant superintendent in the months leading up to Smith’s hiring as assistant superintendent last year.

She previously spent 14 years with the Auburn School Department, where she was director of the Office of Learning and Teaching and a teacher appraisal consultant. She was also senior project coordinator with the Center for Educational Services in Auburn, executive director of the Casco Bay Educational Alliance, director of the Maine Facilitator Project, a lecturer at the University of Maine and Worcester State College in Massachusetts, and an elementary and secondary teacher in Maine and Maryland.

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Dow, who will receive a salary of more than $87,700, said she is happy to serve only on an interim basis.

“I’m really glad to stay for the 11 months and help them find somebody,” she said.

“We are fortunate to have Elaine Dow join our school system in that position,” Smith said. “She comes to us as a person familiar with the community and school system. … I have valued the work Elaine did while in the district and the positive impact she made in such a short time. She will be extremely helpful as we continue to focus on efforts on the current initiatives underway in our school district.”

Smith added that Dow is a talented, “dedicated and knowledgeable addition to the school district.”

“I’m happy with the direction the school district is going, and I’m really looking forward to continuing that work,” Dow said, “and to work with a new superintendent who’s very clear about what he wants to accomplish, and I really want to back him up.”

Alex Lear can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 113 or alear@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @learics.

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Elaine Dow will serve as interim assistant superintendent for School Administrative District 75 through next June.


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