The Johns Bay Coastal Alliance committee elected officers and discussed its transition plan for leaving AOS 93 at its meeting on Nov. 19.
This is the first time the committee has met since the Bristol and South Bristol school committees unanimously voted to withdraw from AOS 93 to form a two-town education service center and approve an interlocal agreement at their respective meetings in November.
Christian Cotz, a member of the South Bristol School Committee, was unanimously elected as the committee’s chair. Katherine Thompson, a member of the Bristol School Committee, was unanimously elected as vice-chair. Jonathan Swall, a member of the South Bristol School Committee, was unanimously elected as treasurer.
South Bristol School Committee Chair Sara Mitchell brought up that since Swall’s term on the school committee will expire in March 2026, there may be some job overlap with anyone interested in taking on the position after Swall leaves.
AOS 93 Director of Finance and Operations, Peter Nielsen, gave a presentation on what the transition plan for Bristol and South Bristol will look like. Nielsen said that Bristol and South Bristol still have transactions to complete this year for AOS 93 that need to be done before their withdrawal on June 30.
“Those will need to get done without any balls getting dropped,” Nielsen said. “In fact, we have to pick up the pace because Jefferson and Nobleboro will be able to spend July and August fine-tuning their finances and things, and (Bristol and South Bristol) won’t be in that system.”
Nielsen also said that the software AOS 93 uses for accounting and business management, AptaFund, will require a new license to be set up for Johns Bay Coastal Alliance, and records from audits will need to be moved from the central office to Bristol, so they are a permanent historical record.
Sandy Macphee, the vice-chair of the South Bristol School Committee and tax collector for the town of South Bristol, also spoke on the use of technology at the meeting.
She suggested developing a more efficient workflow for the education service center by having things like the warrant process revisited by finding new technology to support Johns Bay Coastal Alliance as it becomes operational.
“I think there is a great opportunity for technology to support us into a better workflow here,” Macphee said. “That’s something we’re going to start diving into.”
Hiring will be one of the next steps for the Johns Bay Coastal Alliance committee. An executive director, superintendent/curriculum coordinator, finance clerk, administrative assistant, and special education director will all need to be hired for the education service center.
According to Bristol Consolidated School Principal Jennifer Ribeiro, the job descriptions for the finance clerk, administrative assistant, and special education director will be created under the guidance of the executive director and superintendent once they are hired, which needs to happen by April.
“Those hiring processes will need to be put into place to hit those deadlines in April, so people can be hired and know what their responsibilities are,” Ribeiro said.
The current committee will be responsible for hiring all positions.
The next meeting of Johns Bay Coastal Alliance will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 8, at Bristol Consolidated School. For more information about the ongoing reorganization work, go to aos93.org/o/bcs/page/bcssbs-restructuring.
