RSU 12 towns Westport Island and Wiscasset are both considering filing petitions with the Sheepscot Valley RSU 12 School Board and the state Dept. of Education Commissioner, to investigate leaving the RSU.
In Westport Island’s case, if the citizens vote “yes,” it would give the selectmen the green light to spend an amount not to exceed $20,000 for the purpose of investigating withdrawal options.
On May 31, at the Old Town Hall, the Westport Island School Research Committee (the Education Committee) outlined how costs per student are now “over 60 percent higher” since joining the RSU 12 in 2009-10. The costs have been fixed for three years, since the RSU was formed.
After the third year, the RSU board re-examined the cost sharing arrangement, but did not make any changes.
In a handout distributed at the May 31 meeting, the Education Committee wrote that “prior to joining RSU 12, annual taxpayer costs averaged $888,000 per year for 102.5 pupils (five year average, Fiscal Years 2004-2009).
However, the current taxpayer cost is $1,172,367 for 72 students (FY 2011-12 actual). This results in a 32 percent increase in cost with 30 percent fewer students, which means that the cost-per-student has nearly doubled from $8483 to $16,360 per student.”
Education Committee members are Anne Cole-Fairfield (chair), Angie Calvo, Richard Gray, and Michelle Chartier (on the RSU 12 board).
Additional people who provided report information are Dennis Dunbar (Westport Island Budget Committee), Richard DeVries (Westport RSU 12 School Board member), Hilary Holm, (chair of the RSU 12 School Board), and RSU 12 Supt. Greg Potter.
The Education Committee formed in February to “assess Westport’s current education resource status.”
The committee polled about 20 parents to see whether they were dissatisfied with the current arrangement, and why. The committee also investigated the positive and negative fiscal results of withdrawing from the RSU, and which school unit structure would better suit Westport.
The Education Committee’s report outlined the fiscal impact that withdrawing from the RSU would have on Westport. The committee points included: the cost of education would be based on the State-mandated cost per student; Westport would be responsible for tuition, transportation, cost of a superintendent (shared or contracted); and, Westport would be responsible for the entire cost of special education needs.
The negative impact would be the special education costs, their report said. As part of the RSU, Westport’s special education costs are shared by all eight towns. If they decide to leave the RSU, “the subsidies received on behalf of the special education students would come back to the town instead of the RSU.”
The committee outlined the history behind the RSU 12 debate in their document. Westport’s budget committee, consisting of seven people, formed a subcommittee last summer, to study the economics of the RSU and potential savings.
Dennis Dunbar, head of the budget committee and the subcommittee, said that since April 2011 the budget committee provided a list of recommendations to the RSU 12 and school boards. According to Dunbar, they recommended improvements to the cost sharing arrangement. For example, they recommended that the RSU Board consider Westport’s share of the budget be capped at 150 percent of the average cost per student in the RSU.
Westport’s request was voted down last February by the RSU 12 board, said Dunbar. It was voted on again, and passed but by a simple majority, which was in violation of the procedural rules, as it needed to pass by two thirds of the members. But the third vote failed as well, Dunbar said, because the northern towns had no wish to subsidize a tax break for Westport.
Westport has 66 students and the cost for 2012-13 budget is $1,216,651. Their cost per student, Dunbar said, is now over $18,400.
The Education Committee, led by Anne Cole-Fairfield, was in synch with the subcommittee’s costs, said Dunbar. Richard DeVries, one of Westport’s representatives on the RSU 12 board urged that Westport consider delaying the vote on June 12 in hopes that the RSU 12 school board could address the cost sharing in the fall. However, the question is already on the ballot, said Dunbar, and if they do not pass it this time, the town is locked out of voting on it again for a two-year period.
Unlike Wiscasset, Dunbar said, Westport Island does not have its own schools, and has school choice, which makes their situation much less complicated. Westport parents will still have school choice.
If Westport voters decide to allow the selectmen to use $20,000 toward researching definitive answers to the school problem, the final vote on whether to leave the RSU won’t occur until next year, and the new structure would begin in July 2013. “We’ve done enough work to know that the savings can be a significant,” said Dunbar.
