By Charlotte Boynton
The inclement weather did not keep 369 Wiscasset voters from casting their votes at the polls Tuesday, Dec. 9, on the primary school closure referendum at Wiscasset Community Center. Wiscasset Town Clerk Christine Wolfe is shown, seated, with a voter, and Wiscasset Police Sgt. Kathy Williams. (Charlotte Boynton photo) |
Despite inclement weather Dec. 9, Wiscasset residents turned out in force to overwhelmingly vote in favor of closing the Wiscasset Primary School, 367-133.
The vote was the result of a citizen’s petition effort that followed the Wiscasset School Board’s decision to close the primary school in September.
During the public hearing on the referendum question, school board members informed the voters the town did not need to operate three school facilities due
to the declining student population. Currently there are approximately 550 students, with each of the Wiscasset’s three schools operating at about 50 percent capacity.
Most voters agreed during the public hearing the town needed to close a school, but disagreed as to what school should be closed.
With the decision made to close the primary school, School Board Chairman Steve Smith said following the announcement of the vote, “I am very happy the
voters supported the decision of the school board. I understand with this vote, we must make sure everyone is comfortable with this move, even those who voted no.”
“I am confident with the faculty and staff we have, the middle school will make an excellent K-6 school for our students,” Smith said.
With the vote to close the primary school, the K-6 students will be transferred to the middle school facility and the seventh and eighth grades will be
attending classes at the high school, beginning with the 2015-2016 school year.
Wiscasset Town Clerk Christine Wolfe said, considering the bad weather, the voter turnout was not too bad. “We have had lower voter turnout than we had
today with better weather,” she said.
There were a total of 500 votes cast with 131 absentee votes and 367 voters at the polls. Wiscasset has over 3,700 registered voters.
The town of Wiscasset voted to withdraw from the Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12 in November 2013. The Wiscasset school board had less than a year
to develop a stand-alone school system and a budget for the 2014-2015 school year.
As proposed the 2014-2015 school budget was $9.4 million to operate the three Wiscasset schools, which was nearly double last year’s RSU 12 assessment of
$5.1 million.
Smith said he is hopeful the school board will be able to develop a 2015-2016 budget to reduce the burden to the taxpayers by closing a school. According to
information provided by the school board, the savings in closing the primary school is estimated to be nearly $800,000.
The cost of moving the K-4 students to the Middle School is estimated to be $41,000, primarily for renovations to the school.
The school board will meet Wednesday, Dec. 10 to begin planning the 2015-2016 school year now that the decision to close the primary school has been made by
the voters.
