Maine School Administrative District 42

Maine School Administrative District 42, doing business as Msad 42, is a U.S. local government entity and public school district headquartered in Mars Hill, Maine, that receives federal education and nutrition grants as a sub-recipient from the Maine Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service. The district does not hold prime contracts or IDVs and operates entirely in the sub-recipient role on education and child nutrition programs flowing through state intermediaries.

Msad 42's federal footprint consists almost entirely of sub-grant awards in two domains. The first is child nutrition: the district receives pass-through sub-awards from the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children demonstrations, and related nutrition assistance administered by USDA's Food and Nutrition Service via the Maine Department of Education. The second is K–12 education support: the district is a sub-recipient on Title I grants for high-poverty school improvement (helping students failing or at risk of failing to meet state academic achievement standards), special education grants serving children ages birth through 20 with disabilities, and well-rounded education grants to expand student access to science, arts, and technology. All named sub-awards flow through the Maine Department of Education as the state-level prime grantee.

At the prime level, Msad 42 holds only five direct federal grants, all formula awards under the Small, Rural School Achievement Program from the Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. These awards were issued on July 1 in each of 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026, with ultimate completion dates each September 30 in the following year. The district's total obligated dollars across all eighty-four awards is $1.5 million, concentrated in sub-awards: 79% of recent activity is sub-recipient work.

Customer concentration is narrow. The Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service accounts for 54 awards (the vast majority sub-awards for school lunch and breakfast programs), and the Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education accounts for 24 awards (split between direct Small, Rural School Achievement Program grants and Title I, special education, and well-rounded education sub-awards). The Department of Education's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services contributes four sub-awards. Combined, these three funding streams account for 99% of the district's award count. Activity has been episodic: one award in 2022, a jump to sixteen in 2023, forty-two in 2024, nine in 2025, and three in 2026. Only one award faces ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, indicating limited recompete exposure in the near term.