In a two-page letter to Wiscasset Selectman Ed Polewarczyk, Wiscasset resident Ginger Wehrle has requested that an Internet link from the town’s website to the Wiscasset Educational Research Panel (WERP) be removed.
During the public comment section of a regular Wiscasset Board of Selectmen meeting April 12, Polewarczyk read Wehrle’s letter, which states the web name, wiscassetschools.org, “makes one wrongly think the panel is part of Wiscasset schools.”
“A member of the WERP panel is a selectman and another is the spouse of a Wiscasset selectman,” wrote Wehrle. “This further gives WERP the appearance of approval/endorsement by the Board of Selectmen.”
WERP member Judy Colby is a sitting Wiscasset selectman and Sharon Nichols, listed as the group’s website coordinator, is the wife of Wiscasset Select Board Chairman David Nichols. According to their website, the mission of the panel is “to explore Wiscasset’s options for providing a quality education for all our children at a fair and reasonable cost to taxpayers.”
After months of research, the group had expressed concern over the town’s participation in RSU 12 and school consolidation. The panel had argued that the quality of education has not improved since joining the RSU and also the town is disproportionately funding, (at 35 percent) the total cost of the district.
Wehrle, the mother of four students currently enrolled in the Wiscasset schools, wrote that “contrary to the fears of WERP, I find that the Wiscasset High School continues to offer a comprehensive college prep curriculum…I encourage those on the Wiscasset Board of Selectmen currently relying on WERP’s information to consistently look to Wiscasset School’s administrators and RSU 12’s superintendent to assure the receipt of accurate and complete updated information about Wiscasset schools and the RSU.”
After a lengthy debate, the board then passed a motion 3-0 with Colby and Nichols abstaining to remove the link.
“By providing a link to that website, we are in essence saying we agree with the panel,” said Polewarczyk.
As of April 18, the link had been removed, according to Town Manager Laurie Smith.
