Edgecomb School Board members approved forming an Alternative Organizational Structure with other Union 49 member towns and later join with Georgetown during their Tuesday, April 6 meeting at Edgecomb Eddy School.
Union 49, which is made up schools in Edgecomb, Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor and Southport, will form a Dept. of Education approved Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS) in the first year, with Georgetown joining in the second year.
The AOS plan and interlocal agreement among towns to form the so-named AOS “Rocky Channels School System” was submitted to the Dept. of Education on April 1. School Board chair Steve Ward said the name, taken from historical reference, unifies schools in member towns along the Sheepscot River.
An earlier attempt to form an AOS with the town of Jefferson was voted down (by 85 percent, according to Ward) by residents on the Sheepscot River peninsula. Georgetown did not form into a school system with towns to the south and, according to Union 49 Superintendent Eileen King, turned to their district.
As Edgecomb School Board members understand, Georgetown filed a notice of intent to form an AOS after meeting with King and other school union members last March. King said DOE Commissioner Susan Gendron rejected their request, as Union 49 and Georgetown had 998 students combined, falling just two students short of what was needed.
At a meeting last month, school board members decided to wait a year. King said she had kept a close eye on LD570, a current bill proposing to enact measures to improve laws governing the consolidation of school administrative units.
She learned Union 49 towns could consolidate into an AOS themselves and leave language in the structure’s plan for Georgetown to join within a year. After meeting on Thursday, King sent the plan to the DOE on Friday and was then asked to reform and adjust it some more.
The union has an April 8 deadline for DOE approval of the adjusted plan and union members need to file wording for a ballot article with the town by April 9. They then have a deadline of April 23 to sign and deliver election warrants and absentee ballots to town clerks.
Warrants for public hearings on the referendum article must be posted no later than May 11, with a deadline of May 18 for the public hearings, according to the timeline given to school board members.
If voters approve the consolidation, Boothbay-Boothbay Harbor CSD is slated to get $185,000 in state funding, according to Ward. He said Edgecomb should also get an additional $50,000.
“Georgetown has given positive information they do want to join with us,” Ward said. “I think, given my discussions with their board members, it is a very good match.”
King said the AOS would essentially operate the same way as the union does now. Decisions regarding the buildings and school would stay with their individual school board members and the property remains with the schools. The only property that would change ownership would be the central office, she said.