In a straw poll at the Dec. 13 meeting of the Sheepscot Valley RSU 12 Board of Directors, only half of the members present indicated they would support engaging in a conversation about administering a standalone Westport Island school district, even if there was no increase in cost to other RSU towns.
Malinda Caron, chair of the RSU’s ad hoc Withdrawal Committee, brought the subject before the board after concerns were raised at a Nov. 27 meeting with Westport Island’s withdrawal committee over whether the board would want to administer to that standalone district or not.
Board member Joan Morin said, “I think it’s going to be too much money” to contract with Westport Island, and she wouldn’t support it “unless we’re going to recoup every single bit of our costs.”
Member Richard DeVries, who is also on Westport Island’s withdrawal committee, said his committee fully expects the town will pay the actual cost for the administrative services. DeVries said his committee would like the voters to have that information so they can make an informed decision on whether or not to withdraw.
The Westport Island committee has sent a letter to Deputy Commissioner of Education Jim Rier asking if the situation has changed on whether a town-wide vote can stop the withdrawal process, DeVries said.
Member Chris Johnson asked board Chair Hilary Holm how many students the RSU would have if Wiscasset, Westport Island, and Palermo all withdrew, adding that the law requires the RSU to have a minimum of 1200 students, with few exceptions.
The RSU wouldn’t have that minimum if all three towns withdrew, Holm said.
“I don’t feel I have enough information to vote yes or no because Wiscasset is such a factor,” said member William Stafford.
After the evenly split eight of 16 vote, Caron said her plan is to go to the RSU’s central office to ask for help in determining what the actual cost would be for administering to Westport Island, and then bring that information to the board’s meeting in January.
Caron brought a second item to the board for discussion only: a clause in Westport Island’s draft agreement that would easily let the town rejoin the RSU two years after a successful withdrawal if they hadn’t joined with another district.
Morin suggested if a town is no longer a part of the RSU, then it will need to follow the legal process to rejoin it.
“We’re already married to these people. Now they’re asking for a divorce, and we’re going to have to pay for the remarriage,” Vice-Chair Thomas Birmingham said. The RSU’s towns would have to pay for referendums to approve Westport Island rejoining the RSU, he said.
Board member Sandra Crehore, of Westport Island, asked if it would be better to go to the Dept. of Education or to the legislature to ask about stopping the withdrawal process.
“I have better things to do than spend 30 minutes discussing a withdrawal that has very little chance of passing,” Crehore said. The people who voted for Westport Island to withdraw thought they were only voting to consider withdrawal, she said.
Holm said there should be clarification soon on whether or not such a clause has legal standing.
Caron told the board effective withdrawal dates for both Wiscasset and Westport Island would likely be June of 2014. Both towns are hoping the effective date would be June of 2013, but “that’s going to be a tight schedule for that to happen,” she said.
Explaining an expected time-line of events, Caron said the RSU would need to contract with another high school to take its students if Wiscasset takes its former high school building back, and that contract would need to go before the voters in the RSU’s towns.
After a contract was in place, the negotiations with Wiscasset would continue, the negotiated agreement would be submitted for a 60 day review by the Commissioner of Education Stephen Bowen. Finally, if the agreement were approved, Bowen would set a date for a referendum on whether or not to withdraw, Caron said.
“This is months and months of work ahead of us,” she said.
