The RSU 12 Board of Directors voted Thursday, April 13 to develop a tuition contract with Edgecomb Eddy School for pre-kindergarten students who live in Alna and Westport Island. The decision follows several months of discussions between RSU 12 and both the Edgecomb Eddy School and the Wiscasset School Department.
The one-year tuition contract must go to the Edgecomb School Committee and the RSU 12 Board of Directors for final approval. RSU 12 Superintendent Howard Tuttle expects the RSU 12 board to vote on the contract in May.
RSU 12 did not include tuition for Alna and Westport Island pre-K students in its budget, Tuttle said, but with savings in other areas of the budget, funds are available to cover tuition for up to five students.
AOS 98 offered a more financially attractive contract, and the K-6 Edgecomb Eddy School has a record of academic excellence, RSU 12 board member Ralph Hilton said. Hilton sat on the RSU 12 committee that handled negotiations with both AOS 98 and the Wiscasset School Department.
Busing was also a factor in the decision to develop a contract with Edgecomb, Hilton said. RSU 12 will bus Alna and Westport Island students, and dropping off students in Edgecomb is more convenient for the timing of the bus runs.
The final details of the contract will be hammered out over the next month before they are presented to the board for approval, Hilton said.
The pre-K contract was a factor in the budget process for both the Edgecomb Eddy School and the Wiscasset School Department. Pre-K has been requested at Edgecomb Eddy School for a long time, Principal Lisa Clarke said.
Due to the anticipated contract, Clarke expects the school to launch the program in the 2017-2018 school year. The program will be a full-day program, but will be catered to meet the needs of the families and students it serves, she said.
The program may begin with reduced hours until pre-K students acclimate to a full school day, Clarke said. “I’m excited to implement this new program and partner with Westport Island and Alna families,” she said.
The Edgecomb Eddy School has “outstanding” educational programs and will “certainly meet the expectations” of RSU 12 for high-quality programming, AOS 98 Superintendent Eileen King said. “We are very excited to partner with RSU 12. It will be great for the kids,” King said.
The Edgecomb Budget Committee called the pre-K program into question in its review of the 2017-2018 education budget, expressing concern that the town will be forced to cover the costs of an added classroom if the partnership with RSU 12 does not work.
The pre-K program at the Edgecomb Eddy School carried no additional costs in the 2017-2018 budget, and will be administered by the school’s current staff, Clarke said. Cindy Casey, the school’s current kindergarten teacher, will lead the pre-K classroom in the upcoming school year.
Casey has previous experience teaching pre-K, Clarke said. The Edgecomb Eddy School is in the process of receiving accreditation for its pre-K classroom, but Clarke does not anticipate any problems. The introduction of the new program “should be an easy transition,” for the school, she said.
King expects seven Edgecomb students to attend pre-K. The number of Alna and Westport Island pre-K students is not yet set in stone, King said. The class size is limited to 16 students.
The Wiscasset School Department added a pre-K teacher to its 2017-2018 budget in anticipation of the contract, but that position has since been removed, Superintendent Heather Wilmot said.
Regardless of RSU 12’s decision regarding a contractual relationship, “Wiscasset offers an exceptional program that does a great job preparing our 4-year-olds for kindergarten,” Wilmot said.
The pre-K program in Wiscasset transitioned from half-days to full days in January. In the 2017-2018 school year, Wiscasset plans to start with a half-day pre-K program and expand to a full day in November, Wilmot said.
The transition from a half-day to a full-day program is largely due to the program’s success, Wilmot said. “We’re going to continue to expand” and develop the program to give 4-year-olds access to “quality learning opportunities,” she said.
However, Wiscasset is projecting enrollment of 12 pre-K students in 2017-2018, so an additional pre-K classroom will not be necessary, Wilmot said. If RSU 12 approaches Wiscasset about a potential partnership in the future, “we would welcome that conversation,” she said.
Since expanding its pre-K program through a U.S. Department of Education grant, RSU 12 has considered how to best serve the pre-K population in Alna and Westport Island. The district’s pre-K classrooms are in the northern part of the district, and the distance has long been pointed to as a barrier for Alna and Westport Island students to access the program.
Wiscasset and AOS 98 both expressed interest in a pre-K partnership with RSU 12 as a way to expand their pre-K programs, increase tuition revenue, and draw more school-choice students to their districts.
While Alna and Westport Island are school-choice towns for grades K-12, school choice does not include the pre-kindergarten population.
