Three dozen attend Vassalboro school board workshop

Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

Three dozen Vassalboro residents turned out for their school board’s Oct. 28 public workshop meeting, on school safety and other topics. Board members welcomed them and invited them to come back again – and again.

Please come to our monthly board meetings, they said. Please come to our meetings with the budget committee that will start early in 2026. Want to be a substitute teacher? Please apply; we’ll do our best to accommodate your skills and schedule. Want to be a bus driver? Please apply; we’ll train you.

Board members organized the meeting after they cut off a discussion of school safety at their Oct. 14 regular meeting, a discussion sparked by a September incident at Vassalboro Community School and reports on social media (see the Oct. 23 issue of The Town Line, p. 3).

Oct. 28 audience members got a two-page single-spaced list of responses to questions asked at and after the Oct. 14 meeting. During the Oct. 28 discussion, Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer explained that because of privacy laws, many things cannot be made public.

He repeatedly emphasized the importance of students’ safety to every adult in the school; the adults are responsible for the students, and many, like him, are themselves parents.

“Our duty is to care, guard and protect your kids every day,” he said, a duty that begins when the first bus arrives and ends only when everyone is home safely.

Only applause of the night

The only applause during the Oct. 28, Vassalboro School Board workshop came when a speaker identified herself as the mother of a member of the boys’ soccer team. The team won the 2025 Sheepscot Valley Athletic Conference championship.

The response sheet said that every day, school personnel face troubling situations involving students, of varying degrees of severity, including some that might have serious consequences. Pfeiffer said teachers and educational technicians are trained to deal with them; every allegation of inappropriate words or actions is investigated. It is up to staff to judge what safety measures, if any, are needed, with the superintendent having the final say.

Pfeiffer said there is a difference between a threat and a credible threat. When there is a credible threat, responses might include notifying involved parents or all parents; locking down the school; and/or notifying law enforcement or the fire department.

VCS does lockdown drills, Pfeiffer said. The response sheet said there hasn’t yet been one this year, but one will be held soon.

“If there is a high and credible risk, we’ll let you know,” he promised; but he does not intend to create unnecessary anxiety by sharing every minor incident. He advised parents to rely on three reliable sources – a robocall from the school, the school website, vcsvikings, or the Vassalboro Community School Facebook page – and not to trust rumors or on-line comments.

The superintendent reminded the audience that students are on buses or in school only about seven hours a day; for the other 17 hours, school personnel have “no control over students or their environment.”

Audience members challenged the superintendent when he said no student ever brought a gun or a knife into VCS. They asked how he could be sure, without inspecting backpacks and students’ pockets daily.

People suggested installing metal detectors at school doors and wanding backpacks.

Another suggestion was having adults as bus monitors, to make rides to and from school quieter. When an educational technician in the audience said there are not enough staff members available, a man suggested older students might serve as monitors.

One comment on the response sheet was that although the entrance doors are locked, “it appears anyone can be let in by ringing the buzzer.” The reply was that the buzzer “is connected to a monitor screen” in the office. Office staff admit people they recognize; they ask a stranger who he or she is and why he or she is there.

Pfeiffer called mental health “a huge issue” in public schools nation-wide. On the school board’s recommendations and with taxpayers’ support, VCS has two full-time school counselors, Gina Davis and Jamie Routhier, who each spoke briefly about what they do; a full-time social worker; and a full-time nurse.

A suggestion on the response sheet was that each student be screened by the counselors. The answer was, “Staff is constantly conducting informal screening”; a staff member who becomes concerned about a student investigates and involves other people as appropriate.

An on-going issue is safety as parents drop off and pick up students. The response sheet explained the procedures, which involve having staff on duty indoors and outdoors, with radio communication among them. Any time a student rides with someone different or takes a different bus, the office is informed.

Pfeiffer and board members thanked people who made suggestions. Pfeiffer listed some of the changes made since he became superintendent in 2018, including installing more than three dozen additional security cameras; redesigning the office so people working there can see the front doors; and the ongoing building update, designed to increase safety and comfort.

On a different topic, a parent questioned gaps in the middle school curriculum, like no foreign language and no social studies. School board chairman Jolene Gamage said when the last foreign-language teacher retired, the board could not find a successor. Pfeiffer plans to look into virtual programs, which he said are often shared among several schools.

Pfeiffer invited people who want a social studies teacher to attend budget meetings.

Overall, he, Principal Ira Michaud and Assistant Principal Tabitha Brewer said, VCS is well staffed: there is one vacant educational technician position. Substitutes would serve short-term only, during a staff member’s illness or other emergency. Brewer added that half a dozen people have applied to become substitutes.

The Vassalboro School Board usually meets the evening of the second Tuesday of each month, with a July recess. Because the second Tuesday in November is the Veterans Day holiday, the meeting will be held Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 6 p.m., at Vassalboro Community School.