The Westport Island RSU 12 Withdrawal committee is not happy with the recent proposal presented to them May 12, by the RSU Ad-hoc negotiating committee.
According to Westport Island Withdrawal Committee Chairman Gerald Bodmer, the plan the town committee had agreed upon, was very different than the one they were presented at their meeting, May 12, by the RSU Ad-hoc Committee. However, “We will continue to negotiate with them until we do reach an agreement,” Bodmer said.
Bodmer said there were a lot of legal terms that had been added to the agreement that needed to be looked at more closely.
Westport Island citizens voted to withdraw from the Sheepscot Valley Regional Unit in a vote of 152 in favor to 70 opposed on June 12, 2012. Shortly after that vote the selectmen appointed the town withdrawal committee, whose job it is to develop a withdrawal plan to be presented to the Commissioner of Education, after negotiating the terms with the RSU.
According to Bodmer, the committee has been working on that plan for several months, and after several meetings, and negotiating with the RSU Ad-hoc committee, the Withdrawal committee assumed they were very close to an agreed withdrawal plan. However after last week’s meeting they are not so sure.
Bodmer said, “We need to re-group, look the plan over again, and then we will continue to negotiate.
The town withdrawal committee will meet this week to go over the plan, and decide where to go from there, according to Bodmer. Other members of the committee are Mort Mendes, Dennis Dunbar, and Richard DeVries.
