Top Administrator Leaving
School Board Accepts SAU 4 Superintendent Resignation
BRISTOL — Superintendent Paul Hoiriis will be leaving School Administrative Unit 4 at the end of the academic year, the second member of the central office staff to resign in recent months. Business Administrator Angela Carpenter submitted her resignation in March.
In his letter to the Newfound Area School Board, Hoiriis wrote, “It is with a heavy heart that I submit this letter of resignation as Superintendent of Schools for the Newfound Area School District effective June 30, 2026. It has been a privilege and honor to serve the Newfound community for 18 years as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, and superintendent. I did not come to this decision lightly, but it is the right one for my family life at this time. I will miss the staff, students, and greater Newfound community greatly as Newfound has been my family for nearly two decades and will always hold a special place in my heart.”
The school board accepted Hoiriis’ resignation “with regret” on April 13.
Hoiriis came to Newfound from the Inter-Lakes School District, first as a social studies teacher at Newfound Memorial Middle School, then as assistant principal and principal at Newfound Regional High School. The school board hired him as superintendent in July 2024 as part of an entirely new administrative team in the central office that included Carpenter, who had to deal with the aftermath of the November 2023 cyber attack that eradicated the district’s financial records.
Over the past two years, in addition to restoring what could be recovered of the records to allow a financial audit, SAU 4 has had to navigate the challenges of aging infrastructure, declining student enrollment, restrictions in state funding, and a tax cap that has imposed additional constraints on programming. As the school district considers the consolidation of schools, the school board has voted to close Danbury Elementary School next year, sending its students to Bristol. It then learned that Bristol Elementary School has structural problems that required immediate remediation if it is to reopen in September.
After the board accepted his resignation, Hoiriis said, “I’m gonna miss this board, the staff, the students, the community. Eighteen years — I feel like it’s more my community than the one I live in.”