Samantha Adickes sits at her desk near the main entrance of Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta. Adickes said she never planned on working in a school, but she has grown to love her job. (Sherwood Olin photo)
Twice a day, the Great Salt Bay Community School student body flows past Samantha Adickes’ desk, located just inside the Damariscotta school’s main entrance. According to Adickes, the organized chaos of arrival and dismissal is just a small part of what can a very busy job.
“It’s hectic every day,” she said. “The morning drop-off is fairly crazy; guys running in and out, kids forgetting their stuff. I see myself as a mother to 400 kids, essentially.”
Adickes has been employed full time at the K-8 school for 12 years. She was a stay-at-home mother of two, including a 2-year-old, with no plans to go back to work when then-GSB Assistant Principal Kim Schaff approached her about a full-time position.
GSB had a need for extra office help and an opening for a part-time ed tech. The latter position was ideally suited for someone with some medical knowledge and Schaff thought of Adickes, who once studied nursing at the University of Southern Maine in Portland
The job allowed the Adickes family to adopt the same schedule. Adickes’ husband, Jason, was already employed at the school and the couple’s oldest son, Kellen, was enrolled there.
“That was really the biggest reason I took the job, was to be on the same schedule,” Adickes said. “All four of us basically had the same exact schedule, so it doesn’t really get any better than that.
After a couple years, as the needs of her student charge changed, Adickes transitioned into a full-time role in the office. Her role is currently in transition again as the newly formed Great Salt Bay RSU 48 prepares to complete its separation from AOS 93.
After an extended review of possible options, voters in Bremen, Damariscotta, and Newcastle – the three towns that make up the Great Salt Bay Consolidated School District – voted in June 2024 to withdraw from AOS 93 and create their own regional school unit.
RSU 48 will become fully realized as of July 1, piloted by an office consisting of former AOS 93 Superintendent Lynsey Johnston serving as part-time RSU 48 superintendent and part-time business manager, supported by Adickes as administrative assistant.
Adickes has traditionally had summers off in keeping with the school calendar. This summer she expects to work at least two days a week as the new school unit becomes fully operational.
“We’re kind of seeing what Lynsey is going to need, and what we’re going to need from my role,” Adickes said. “Then it will get much busier. Everything’s going to change at the school, so it’s going be a big transition for all of us.”
Adickes was on the job when the GSB entered the national conversation in December 2022, after a Newcastle parent announced at a school committee meeting she had withdrawn her child from GSB, alleging a school social worker had given the child a chest binder without the parent’s knowledge.
The issue eventually led to lawsuit, filed by the parent in April 2023. A U.S. District Court judge dismissed the lawsuit in May 2024. The U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston heard arguments appealing the dismissal in October 2024. The appeals court has yet to issue its decision in the case.
While the story was in the news, some people took it upon themselves to call the school to weigh in on the issue, frequently in the form of horrific threats and extremely objectionable language.
“That was awful, like, because a lot of emotions came out of that, from not just the community, really the entire world,” Adickes said. “We were getting phone calls from people from other states, other countries. News media, Fox News, was on the phone with us constantly. We got so many threats, during that duration that we almost didn’t want to answer the phone.”
The story played out for more than a year and every time the story would bubble up in the national consciousness the process would start all over again. It was a very trying time, Adickes said.
Adickes credited her two front office co-workers Michelle Brown and Lisa Stevens, both of whom preceded her arrival, for sharing the weight of the public’s ire. The three share some overlapping duties but Brown is primarily dedicated to Schaff, who is now the school’s principal. Stevens is primarily dedicated to special education.
Adickes serves in receptionist-type role, greeting the public, monitoring hallway traffic, and making sure messages reach people they need to reach. Almost all of the communication entering the school during the school day goes through her desk.
In her spare time, there is nowhere Adickes would rather be than outside, preferably with her family: whitewater rafting, hunting, hiking, fishing, or golfing, almost anything that does not, in fact, involve sitting behind a desk.
“I just love to be outdoors,” Adickes said. “Spring, summer, fall, I’m outside pretty much all the time when I’m not working.”
Adickes said her love for the outdoors extends back to her childhood in Poland Springs. She was the second oldest of five children and the only daughter. Her cousins owned a dairy and horse farm just down the road from her parent’s house and the young Samantha Dubois spent a great deal of her time there.
“I either hid in my bedroom or I was on the farm,” she said. “I spent all my time with my horse.”
Adickes love of the outdoors extends to her home in Bristol. Arriving in Lincoln County from Auburn in 2007 after Jason Adickes accepted a teaching position at GSB, the Adickeses rented in Nobleboro for six years before buying a house and property near the Bremen town line.
They eventually sold the house, cleared land next door, and built their own house within sight of the first, doing much of the work themselves over the course of four years, assisted on occasion by skilled friends.
“We wanted a bunch of land, so that’s what we got,” she said.
The Adickeses have built their own trail system on their property and installed several tree stands. Encouraged by Jason and Kellen’s keen interest, Adickes took up hunting in 2020, harvesting her first deer last fall.
“I started just because I was curious, you know, and then I just fell in love with it,” she said. “I even went four years without getting anything, but it didn’t really frustrate me because I just enjoyed it. … I love being in the woods hunting, because I just can sit in a tree stand, and even if I don’t see a deer, it’s just relaxing: just kind of watch nature around you.”
When she is not outdoors, hunting, hiking or rafting, Adickes said supporting her oldest son’s nascent golf career is a family passion. A senior at Lincoln Academy, 17-year-old Kellen Adickes is one of the top amateur golfers in the state, winning both the Maine Junior Championship and the New England boys championship in 2023.
According to Samantha Adickes, golf is practically in the family genes. Two of her grandparents played, both parents played, her four brothers all played, two of them well enough to consider professional careers, and Samantha, Jason, and Kellen Adickes all play.
Samantha Adickes’ parents were such enthusiasts they founded the Maine Kids Golf Tour and the family spent many a weekend when the kids were growing up going to various tournaments around Maine.
Adickes worked on golf courses as a teenager and admits she wouldn’t mind returning to a similar position in retirement. For the time being retirement remains well off into the future. Meanwhile, Adickes said she is delighted to find herself right where she is, surrounded by friends and family
“Working in a school is the last thing, the last thing on earth that I would have thought I would be doing,” she said. “It’s not a job I would have looked for. One thing led to another, and I’ve been there ever since. And I love it. I love my job, and I love being there.”
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