The stock, donated by Ellen Safford, a graduate of N.H. Fay High School, which is now Dexter Regional High School, is to be sold and the proceeds used to establish the Henry and Ellen Safford Scholarship.

Principal Bruce Bailey said he was told the sale of the Johnson & Johnson stock will provide $9,500 to the school for the scholarship fund. Only the interest on the fund will be used for the scholarships, the first of which likely will be given this year, he said.

"We see it as a very generous donation," SAD 46 Superintendent Lester Butler said Wednesday.

"It's certainly going to give a student the opportunity to further their education which they might otherwise have not had without it."

Directors also were pleased with the local parent-teacher organization's $10,000 gift for the first phase of a playground revitalization project at the Dexter Primary School.

Butler said the gift will provide playground equipment that is both safe and age-appropriate for the children.

In other recent business, directors voted to extend Bailey's contract for one year, through June 30, 2004. As with all administrators, his salary will be addressed later in the year when budget deliberations begin.
"This content originally appeared as a copyrighted article in the Thursday, January 10, 2002 edition of the Bangor Daily NEWS and is used here with permission."