GSA head leaving school

News of Dan Welch’s new job as a midcoast superintendent broke before local students and parents had learned of departure

Dan Welch, head of GSA for the past two years, is leaving his job. File photo.

This story has been updated with new information.

Jan. 28, 2026

By Tricia Thomas

BLUE HILL—The head of George Stevens Academy is leaving to take a job as a superintendent of schools in midcoast Maine.

The news was announced by the board of RSU 40 on the evening of Jan. 27, before students and parents served by GSA had heard it.

“It is an honor to be selected as the next Superintendent of RSU 40,” Welch said in the press release from the midcoast school district, which covers Friendship, Union, Waldoboro, Warren, and Washington. “I am looking forward to getting to know the students, staff, families, and community members who make this district strong. RSU 40 has a deep sense of community and a clear commitment to its students, and I am excited to build on that foundation together.”

Just two weeks ago, Welch led a press conference with the full GSA board in attendance in which he discussed plans for a listening tour of the community in the coming year to discuss the topic of entering into tuition contracts with the so-called “sending towns” that make up the school’s student body.

Such contracts had been seen by school officials as part of the solution for the school’s declining enrollment. The school currently has about 205 students, far below its peak of more than 350 students decades ago.

Welch did not notify GSA that he was looking for another job before RSU announced his hiring, said GSA spokesperson Amy Strother. Strother also did not know Welch’s reasons for leaving, but surmised that he wanted a job closer to his home in Boothbay. Since taking the job, Welch has lived locally during the work week, seeing his family on weekends, Strother said.

“Dan took this job knowing that he was going to be commuting and knowing that he was going to be away from his family. I think it got to the point where he was not wanting to be away from his family from Monday through Friday,” Strother said.

Meetings with staff about Welch’s departure have been scheduled for today and tomorrow, and the board of trustees will meet on the matter tonight.

The school already has decided that it will not immediately replace Welch and, instead, will be run by a “leadership committee,” Strother said.

“We feel this is an opportunity in disguise, because it is a chance to change the way the school is led. We will not be pursuing a new head of school at this time. We are going to use the current leadership. We’re going to form a leadership committee and do more of a ‘community led’ school,” Strother said.

Although members of the committee have not yet been selected, Strother said she was confident that a leadership committee could effectively run GSA.

“We have a very strong board. We also have a very strong administration and faculty. They are the strongest aspect of the school,” she said.

Strother also said that she did not expect Welch’s departure to affect the school’s current and planned initiatives to boost enrollment, including the prospect of entering into enrollment contracts with sending towns.

“I think that this will open up opportunities for more [school] community involvement and more leadership from the bottom up. So, in that sense, it could mean very good things and it might be great timing, honestly,” she said.

“Dan was hired for a specific set of skills. He has a lot of administrative and financial expertise. Those are the things, specifically, that he fixed. Financially, he has balanced things. He has worked with the budget review committee and he has worked with our finance committee and with facilities, and he has done a lot of really good, detailed, specific work that had been neglected,” Strother said. “After previous administrations left and the interim head of school left, there were specific things that needed to be corrected, and Dan has done that good, qualitative work.”

Strother said Welch’s tenure has been marked by “a rebuilding of trust” between the school and community.

“I think Dan is going to be exiting with a very good foundation laid, and we are very well prepared to move through the next five or 10 years using some of the things that he rebuilt. And, together with the board, which I believe is a very strong board, there has been a rebuilding of the trust with the community,” Strother added.

Strother said that, while staff unease over Welch’s leaving “is always a possibility,” communication with them will be important to addressing their concerns.

“All we can do is be there for our faculty, communicate with them in a transparent and kind way—just like we are doing for all of the [school] community members. Even first thing this morning, our first communication was ‘we’re here, we’re here to talk,’” Strother said. “We’re going to have meetings with them today and tomorrow, and encourage them to stay in constant dialogue. We’re going to try to be there for each other and talk to each other throughout the whole process.”

Jamie MacNair, a 1996 GSA graduate who was critical of the school’s proposed enrollment contracts at a recent board of trustees meeting, said she felt that Welch should have informed GSA staff and students before his hiring was announced by RSU40.

“To hear it from a third party is really disheartening and shocking,” she said.

MacNair, who lives in Penobscot, said she was concerned that Welch’s departure will widen the divide between the school and the community and further damage the school’s reputation, which has flagged in recent years.

“What it does is damage the trust between the school and the community even further, but what the board of trustees could do—and should do—is release a plan and take action immediately,” MacNair said. 

MacNair, whose parents also graduated from GSA, said that while her two children opted to attend Bucksport High School because the public school “was a better fit,” she remains a “huge supporter” of GSA.

“As the owner of two businesses on the peninsula, the stability of George Stevens is very important,” she said.

MacNair was unsure if Welch’s departure would permanently affect the school’s stability.

“I don’t think this is going to help, unless they come up with a really great plan in the next 48 hours,” she said. “They’ve been trying to gain support and trust from the sending towns and this could further sever those relationships.”

Chris Gleason, a GSA board member who has spoken in support of the school at public meetings, said he is confident that the school will survive Welch’s departure.

“The heads of school will come and go, but the heart of this school is intact, and we will do everything we can to support [faculty and students] through any kind of changes that come in the form of leadership changes,” he said.

Welch, who will leave GSA on June 30 and start his new job in Union in July, was unavailable for comment. Thomas Ambrose, the interim superintendent at RSU 40 where Welch will be heading, was also unavailable for comment.