FARMINGTON — Regional School Unit 9 directors voted Tuesday to hire Andrew “Chef Andy” Hutchins of East Dixfield as the new food service director, Superintendent Tom Ward said Wednesday.

Hutchins has more than 25 years of food service experience, including with Aramark Corp. He has been food service director at the University of Maine at Farmington and the University of Southern Maine, Ward said.

He will be paid $57,000 a year, as recommended by the board’s Contract Resolution Committee, he said.

Hutchins has children in the school system.

Hutchins will replace Cheryl Ellis, who is retiring at the end of the school year.

Ellis has been with the district for 40 years, 30 of them as director. The first 10 years she was manager for Mt. Blue High School and they shipped the lunches to Ingalls School, which no longer exists, and Mallett School in Farmington and Cape Cod Hill School in New Sharon. In those days there were no kitchens, Ellis said Wednesday.

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