Spruce Mountain Middle School 

Sonia Pelletier is a special education teacher at the middle school for grades 6-8. She is also the special education coordinator for the middle school. She graduated from University Maine Farmington in 1991. She began teaching in MSAD 52 at Tripp Middle School where she stayed for 14 years. She transferred to Livermore Falls Middle School when her oldest son started school there, spent six years there and then with consolidation, transferred to SMMS. She and her husband live and have raised three children in this community. She has spent many years watching her kids participate in various school and community activities. Now as an “empty-nester”, she spends more time enjoying what the great state of Maine has to offer.

Spruce Mountain High School

Kathryn McAninch has been working for RSU 73 for four years. She works under the supervision of Diane Maurais, at the high school in the Life Skills Room. For 30 years prior to this she worked as an administrative assistant serving civil service and civilian sectors. She loves working with children with special needs and only wished she had done it sooner. Some of her hobbies are sewing, knitting, walking, hiking and spending time with family.

Maria Rier teaches French and Spanish at the high school. She acquired a love of learning languages from her mother who was from the Netherlands and spoke many languages.
She grew up in the suburbs of Boston, spent a year in France living with a French family and attending a French high school before deciding to major in French Studies at Mount Holyoke College. She studied at the University of Montpellier in France for her junior year in college, and later earned a master’s degree in teaching French from the University of Maine. She obtained her Spanish teaching credentials by taking courses at UMF. She loves teaching and tries to find ways to reach all of her students, no matter what their learning styles or abilities are. She enjoys traveling, but she also likes to stay in Maine and go for walks, read, and sew.

Spruce Mountain schools    

Regional School Unit 73 School Resource Officer Darin Gilbert began his law enforcement career at the  Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office in 1997 as a Corrections Sergeant. He assisted running the Correction Emergency Response Team and taught unarmed self-defense for the correctional facility. He was hired by the Farmington Police Department in 2000 and graduated from the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in the 2^nd Basic law Enforcement Training Program in 2002. He was the primary field training officer/training coordinator for the Farmington Police Department from 2005 until 2016 before being promoted to Detective in 2016. A Certified Defensive Tactics Instructor and Classroom Instructor through the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, he is also a certified Active Shooter Instructor through LSU and Homeland Security as well as a certified CRASE (Civilian Response to Active Shooter) Instructor through Texas State University. He earned his Advanced Officer Certification in 2006 and has attended multiple classes through several agencies. He received Farmington Police Department’s “Officer of the Quarter” award several times and the “Employee of the Year” Award in 2005, 2009 and 2013, making him the first employee to receive the distinction 3 times. He was hired by the Jay Police Department in the summer of 2019 as the first School Resource Officer for the district and is a certified SRO through NASRO. He thoroughly enjoys this new step in his law enforcement career, the relationships he has built with students and staff alike and enjoys being part of his new family at Spruce Mountain.

Sonia Pelletier is a special education teacher at Spruce Mountain Middle School. Submitted photo

Kathryn McAninch works in the Life Skills Room at Spruce Mountain High School. Submitted photo

Maria Rier teaches French and Spanish at Spruce Mountain High School. Submitted photo

Darin Gilbert is the school resource officer for Spruce Mountain schools. Submitted photo