After a year of evaluating options to restructure AOS 93, voters in Bremen, Damariscotta, and Newcastle will likely decide whether to convert the Great Salt Bay Consolidated School District into an RSU, or regional school unit, in June.
Damariscotta’s select board will decide whether to include it on the warrant at its meeting Wednesday, April 17; Bremen’s votes May 2. Newcastle set the vote for June at the board’s Tuesday, April 9 meeting.
The change would condense the district’s K-8 governing committee and three secondary education committees into one K-12 committee. One committee would develop the K-8 and secondary budgets under this structure.
“Logistically, it’s a nightmare,” Superintendent Lynsey Johnston said of the current setup.
Great Salt Bay School Committee members have said the RSU conversion, and a proposed departure from AOS 93 after that, would allow administrators to focus energy on their own school and less on managing the various desires of member towns. Administrators expect the change to be at least budget neutral and possibly a money-saving measure.
A part-time superintendent role just for the RSU would also be easier to fill when Johnston departs this summer, according to members.
Johnson said the change would also allow for increased local control.
Administrators proposed restructuring AOS 93 last April, citing operational redundancies in what they said is an outdated system alongside the different desires of seven member towns and the potential to get more state subsidy – another $86,000 from the state for Bremen alone.
AOS 93, formed in 2009 to replace School Union 74, currently includes the towns of Bristol, Jefferson, Nobleboro, and South Bristol in addition to the GSB towns. Each school operates as a separate district contracting services to the central office. Options to consolidate school operations were voted down by towns last year.
The changes on the table now will only affect the central office. GSB converting to an RSU will be a simpler change because the school’s three towns already share many services and contracts, school committee member August Avantaggio told the Damariscotta Select Board on Wednesday, April 3.
All seven towns lean toward forming an educational service center, or a system of cost-sharing services that each school chooses, to replace AOS 93. It would function similarly, with an interlocal agreement and a governing board, but is set to bring in more subsidy and give towns more freedom to decide what services they wish to pay for, according to committee members.
The Damariscotta Select Board decided to wait until its next meeting to vote on including the question on the referendum ballot at the annual town meeting. Members wanted more information about projected budget impacts and the structural details of the change. Damariscotta Select Board members asked for a draft projection of how the budget numbers might reduce costs, which Avantaggio said would be provided this week.
Before voting to put it on the warrant, board members said they had some concerns about the amount of information available and details of the educational service center governing structure.
“I don’t think you’re ready,” Josh Pinkham said. Andrea Keushguerian said it was the committee’s role to sell voters on the change, not the select board’s.
If voters approve, the RSU formation would be effective in July 2025.
An application with the state to have the changes in effect this July was denied because budgets are already developed for the fiscal year and the change would affect state subsidy, according to Avantaggio.
