Veteran school administrator Robert England Jr. figures challenges such as those the pandemic gave education can be viewed in one of two ways: “You can look at things as either depressing, or you can look at them as an opportunity,” the Warren man told Wiscasset Newspaper in a phone interview Friday, May 13. “And we’re coming out of this COVID thing, and you can look at it as an opportunity to see how we can benefit kids.”

England said he shared this outlook when he was a candidate for Wiscasset’s interim superintendent job. May 10, the school committee voted unanimously to hire him.

“I’m looking forward to it and hope I can help out with whatever the community needs,” he told the paper.

England comes with decades’ experience in education and has worked in some other fields, too. His last superintendent job, up the coast from Wiscasset, finished in March, according to his resume Wiscasset School Department provided on request. Starting last July, he was interim superintendent for Union 76, including Community School District 13 Deer Isle-Stonington, Isle Au Haut School and Brooklin and Sedgwick school districts. That meant working on five school budgets, plus construction projects and COVID clinics, the resume notes.

England adds in his March 30 application letter to the search committee for the Wiscasset job, “This was a very rewarding yet challenging year,” from the pandemic, to filling jobs, etc. Anticipating issues and planning allowed for in-person learning most of the year, he wrote.

He told the search committee a goal he would have for Wiscasset School Department would be to “determine how to help close the gap academically and emotionally for students and staff due to COVID. My philosophy for education is simple, put the student at the center of all action.”

He has also had superintendent stints in Islesboro, North Haven and Acton, been assistant principal at Medomak and A.D. Gray middle schools in Waldoboro, and worked in district technology for School Administrative District 40. Also in SAD 40, England taught math and science at A.D. Gray Middle and math, economics and science at Medomak Valley High.

England once operated a sporting camp, worked in sales at Blue Cross & Blue Shield and was an assistant statistical manager at Liberty Mutual, his resume states; England has a bachelor of arts in economics from University of Maine in Orono and a master’s in educational leadership, also from UMaine.

Wiscasset Superintendent of Schools Terry Wood resigned months ago, effective June 30.