New AOS 93 Team Looks Forward to Moving Out of Pandemic

The new administrative team at AOS 93 has its sights set on moving out of the COVID-19 pandemic and getting back to focusing solely on education.

“One of the goals we’re looking for is to step out of the pandemic and really re-center our schools on getting the students the best education (and) preparing them for high school,” new AOS 93 Superintendent Lynsey Johnston said during an interview on Monday, July 11.

Johnston, who held the position of assistant superintendent of business for two years, started in her new role on July 1, along with Business Manager Peter Nielsen and Assistant Superintendent Tara McKechnie.

Special Education Director Kelly Stokes rounds out the Damariscotta-based central office team and has been working for AOS 93 for about two years.

“We have a lot of knowledge and diverse background to pull together,” Johnston said.

There currently is a unique opportunity to evaluate different policies and procedures in the district and see how things can be improved and adapted for the future, Johnston said. She added that the district does not have to go back to the way things were before the pandemic because many lessons were learned educating with COVID-19.

“It’s a different landscape but we have a real opportunity to reshape some things,” Johnston said.

Everything has felt “disjointed” after the past two years of pandemic-related disruptions, Johnston said, and the team hopes to foster more connection between the front office and the five elementary schools in the district.

AOS 93 includes seven towns – Bremen, Bristol, Damariscotta, Jefferson, Newcastle, Nobleboro, and South Bristol. Among the seven towns are five elementary schools – Bristol Consolidated School, Great Salt Bay Community School, Jefferson Village School, Nobleboro Central School, and South Bristol School.

Nielsen said he is attracted to the diversity and uniqueness of the towns and schools in the AOS 93 system.

“If you appreciate how distinct each community is based on its geography, and its population, and its history, you begin to see why local control is so important,” Nielsen said.

Each school operates largely independently and relies on the central office for special education support, support services for students and staff, and the operations of the superintendent’s office. Johnston said the staff’s role is to help the schools run smoothly and support them, while at the same time taking direction from each school.

“I like being at this level where we can help the principals do the best they can so they can help the teachers, who then help the students get the most out of their education,” Johnston said.

McKechnie added that families have also not been able to visit the schools in person as much in the past two years and she hopes they can become more involved now that COVID-19 restrictions are less stringent.

“I feel like that partnership can happen now for them,” McKechnie said.

Incorporating more distance-learning technology into education plans is something the district is considering. Some kids did really well with remote learning and others struggled with it, Johnston said.

“What systems do we need to look at to support all those different types of learning?” she said.

Nielsen said that coming out of numerous disruptions is “prime ground for innovation.” Having a new team in the AOS 93 office presents a unique opportunity to “move forward with some new and fresh energy,” he said.

Nielsen grew up on the North Shore of Boston and originally embarked on a career in publishing after graduating from the University of Maine in Orono. However, there has also been an educational thread throughout his career that eventually led to the job at AOS 93.

Some friends of Nielsen asked him to help start the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier and he headed up marketing, admissions, and fundraising there for a period of time.

“That’s when my career turned from being involved in serving educational communities in private enterprise to being part of them,” Nielsen said.

Prior to taking the business manager position, Nielsen worked in the same role for two years for the Camden Rockport Schools and the Five Town Consolidated School District.

McKechnie grew up in Woolwich and graduated from Goucher College in Maryland with an economics degree. At the urging of her mother, who was also a teacher, she first substitute taught at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham and realized it was the right career path for her.

“There’s a certain person that can do that with kids and meet them where they are and give them what they need on the fly without any previous information,” McKechnie said.

She taught for 23 years at Blue Hill Consolidated School and served as athletic director, volunteer coordinator, and curriculum committees.

For the past five years, McKechnie has been principal at Deer-Isle Stonington Elementary School.

Johnston and McKechnie both didn’t realize they wanted to be teachers at first. Johnston began substitute teaching as the urging of her father.

Both of them also attended the intensive Extended Teacher Training Program at the University of Southern Maine.

Johnston grew up in Waldoboro and attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worchester, Mass. She then transferred to the University of Melbourne in Australia to finish up work for a degree in anthropology.

The Extended Teacher Training Program is a one-year program made for people with undergraduate degrees in other fields who want to be teachers.

Johnston worked at the Rockland-based RSU 13 school district for 13 years, first as a middle school teacher and then as principal. She joined AOS 93 in 2016 as principal for the Jefferson Village School and moved into her previous role as assistant superintendent for business in 2020.

Johnston said it is exciting to be working with a new team and looking at what can be shifted to better educate students moving forward from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think we’ve built a great team here,” Johnston said.