Directors of Regional School Unit 10 meet Monday at Mountain Valley High School in Rumford to discuss the recently formed Behavior Committee. The panel was established in response to a grievance by the Western Foothills Education Association that dozens of staff members have been injured at four schools in Rumford, Mexico and Sumner so far this year. From left are Daniel Hodge of Rumford, Allison Long of Buckfield, Bonnie Child of Mexico, Ed Bulger of Rumford, Superintendent Deb Alden, Chairperson Greg Buccina of Rumford, Peter DeFilipp of Mexico, Erin Hinkley of Buckfield, Kristen Chapman of Sumner and Darcy Klein of Rumford. Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times

RUMFORD — Regional School Unit 10 administrators have agreed to form a committee to look at student violence after the teachers union filed a grievance saying dozens of staff members have been injured at four schools so far this year.

The grievance was filed by the Western Foothills Education Association during a June 17 executive session with the school board, Superintendent Deb Alden said in an email Tuesday.

According to the union’s statement, “There is an alarming rate of increase in the number of staff members being injured due to student violence.” Forty-six workers’ compensation claims have been filed so far this year due to incidents at Rumford Elementary School, Hartford-Sumner Elementary School in Sumner, Meroby Elementary School in Mexico and Western Foothills Regional Program. “Of those 46 injuries, 12 required medical attention.”

The union president said they agreed to drop the grievance as long as the board of directors works to come up with solutions.

“It’s a serous situation,” union President Steve McGinty said Tuesday evening in a phone interview. “There were six staff members who spoke in front of the board at the executive session. We agreed to drop the grievance and we believe the board heard the staff  members.”

“It’s relatively new that we’ve seen this number of staff injured at this grade level,” he said. “It’s rough on the students. We’re not looking to deny anyone an education. We hope to have an effective solution.”

At Monday night’s board of directors’ meeting, Alden said the recently formed district Behavior Committee is in the initial stage of defining student behavior issues they plan to address. The committee will add more members from the district’s Behavior Intervention Committee to work on solutions, she said.

Crystal Duguay, director of the Western Foothills Regional Program for special needs students in kindergarten through grade 12, is facilitating the committee, Alden said.

Duguay got a lot of good feedback from committee members, Alden said. “So we’re looking at ways to expand in some of the training; particularly on de-escalation strategies with students.”