Alna selectmen were urged at their meeting Oct. 8 to appoint a representative from Alna to serve on the Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12 Strategic Planning Committee.
Ralph Hilton, who represents Alna on the RSU 12 Board of Directors, asked the selectmen to consider appointing a representative from Alna to the committee.
Hilton emphasized the importance of an Alna representative being on the committee. The planning of this committee could impact local education and its costs, Hilton said. The next meeting of the committee is scheduled for February 2015.
Nov. 4, the towns of Palermo and Windsor will be voting to either withdraw from RSU 12 or to remain a member of the school unit. “We will know then if we will become a smaller school district or remain the same,” Hilton told the selectmen. “It makes sense to wait until the towns have made their decisions before the committee meets again.”
The RSU 12 Board of Directors would like all member towns be represented on the committee, and currently Alna has no representation. According to Hilton, the appointment to the committee does not have to be a selectman.
Hilton gave the selectmen the minutes from the last meeting of the committee held in Chelsea, dated Sept. 18. According to those minutes, items the committee will address include: how to reach out to home-school students, how to find activities that will bring the community into the schools, how to measure the benefits of the curriculum, areas to save money beyond the performance-based contracts, addition of equity of resources across schools while taking into consideration the different cultures of families and locations, how to enhance community involvement in the schools, and many more suggested items.
The next meeting of the committee will focus on budgeting properly to address the goals of the strategic plan, and to develop a mission statement for the role of the committee, according to the minutes of the Sept. 18 meeting.
