The withdrawal of Wiscasset from Sheepscot Valley RSU 12 may take another year to complete, and Westport Island’s withdrawal may take an unspecified amount of time after that, based on the first meeting between RSU 12 officials and Westport Island’s withdrawal committee on Nov. 27.
An estimated time-line for Wiscasset’s withdrawal process prepared by the RSU’s lawyers and provided to the Westport Island committee at the meeting gives a breakdown of the steps for Wiscasset and the RSU to execute a successful withdrawal and indicates it wouldn’t be complete until about this time next year.
This is of significance to Westport Island’s proceedings because their draft withdrawal agreement relies on contracting with RSU 12 to educate their students for up to 10 years. If the RSU conveys Wiscasset High School to the proposed Wiscasset School Administrative Unit (SAU), the RSU would need to find a high school to contract with.
Based on the time-line, negotiations between Wiscasset’s committee and the RSU may not start until mid-July due to the process of contracting with a new high school.
RSU 12 ad hoc withdrawal committee Chair Malinda Caron said the RSU must have a 10 year contract with a high school in order for the Department of Education to approve a withdrawal agreement where the Wiscasset SAU takes back its former high school.
“If you’re still okay with the possibility of being a part of RSU 12 … why rush this?” Caron asked. “Some hasty decisions have been made,” why not wait to see what gets hammered out with Wiscasset and then make a sound decision? she asked.
RSU 12 Board of Directors Chair Hilary Holm expressed concern about three parts of Westport Island’s draft withdrawal agreement.
The central office would need to determine what the cost difference would be to administer a separate SAU, Holm said.
Holm said it may be important to find out if the Board of Directors would be willing to administer to a separate Westport Island SAU, and if they would be willing to accept a clause in the draft agreement allowing Westport Island to rejoin the RSU after two years if it doesn’t contract with another school system.
The law may require the towns of the RSU have to vote to accept Westport Island back into the RSU, and that requirement “may not be able to be short-circuited” with such a clause, Holm said.
Dennis Dunbar, the citizen-at-large on the Westport Island committee, said he wasn’t sure if that clause would be acceptable to the Department of Education, but that they decided to “float it.”
The various contingencies in the draft agreement were included because it may be awkward if Wiscasset withdraws and most of Westport Island’s students are in a system outside the RSU, Dunbar said.
Holm said there wouldn’t need to be so many contingencies for Wiscasset being a part of or apart from the RSU if Wiscasset’s agreement was completed first.
“Our legal advice has been it would be a lot easier to hammer out a contract with” Westport Island if an agreement comes from Wiscasset first, Holm said. Having the RSU’s superintendent serve as Westport Island’s superintendent “may not be the most efficient” if Wiscasset withdraws, she said.
Interim RSU 12 Supt. Alan Hawkins said the withdrawal of either community, Wiscasset or Westport Island, will cause a redrawing of the picture of the RSU.
The situation may soon become more complicated as Palermo may also be withdrawing from the RSU. Palermo is having a special town meeting on Dec. 5 to vote on the withdrawal.
Richard DeVries, the RSU 12 school board member appointed to Westport Island’s committee, asked the RSU 12 officials if their lawyers said anything was missing legally.
The biggest comment throughout the document is that there is a big assumption that the RSU wants to provide transportation and administration to Westport Island, Holm said. “If you’re happy with our transportation and administration, why are you withdrawing?” she asked.
Gerald Bodmer, chair of the Westport Island committee, said the expectation of his committee to follow through with the withdrawal process is clear. “We have to do it,” he said.
Bodmer said he doesn’t want to send a mixed message about contracting with the RSU as part of their withdrawal. “We have to withdraw,” he said.
Then prepare a plan to withdraw and go to AOS 93 and “have your people vote it down, then you’re still in the RSU,” Holm said.
The passing of the new RSU cost-sharing formula in November was an “unknowable” at the time the withdrawal process was started, said Dunbar.
Westport Island paid ” a very heavy price” for the three years it has been in the RSU, said Morton Mendes, the committee representative for those who petitioned to withdraw.
Caron said the RSU’s lawyers advised Westport Island to investigate the legality of putting out a vote to see if their residents are satisfied with the new cost-sharing formula, which passed on Nov. 6.
Bodmer said the Westport Island committee would speak to the Attorney General to see if a town vote would allow the withdrawal process to halt. The committee will meet soon to discuss the prospect of waiting for Wiscasset’s withdrawal process to be complete before continuing their own withdrawal, and will be seeking a second extension of the deadline from the Department of Education, he said.
A first extension granted to Westport Island by Commissioner of Education Stephen Bowen moved the deadline for submitting their withdrawal agreement to Dec. 19.
The next meeting of Westport Island’s withdrawal committee will be at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 4 at the Westport Island Town Office.
The RSU 12 Board of Director’s next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 13, at 6:30 at Windsor Elementary School.
Caron and Bodmer agreed to check in with each other the week of Dec. 20 to report progress from their respective committees.
