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‘Holy cannoli’: $15K gift for Parks and Rec
SUSAN JOHNS
File photo
If Wiscasset voters agree in June, selectmen will have a committee explore options for the school department’s future. The warrant article arose from two split votes on Zoom Tuesday night, March 16.
Selectmen rejected 3-2 a proposed question Town Manager Dennis Simmons offered. Its scope aligned with residents Judith Colby and William Maloney’s proposal that started this year’s talks. Simmons’ proposed question read: “Shall the Town authorize the Selectmen to form an ad hoc committee to study the financial impact of the Wiscasset School Department discontinuing to offer grades 9-12 and offer those students tuition at a local school of their choice.”
SUSAN JOHNS
File photo
Tuitioning out Wiscasset’s high schoolers may not save money, and will not attract families, Superintendent of Schools Terry Wood said Jan. 26 as selectmen and the school committee talked in a Zoom workshop with multiple topics and a prevailing theme: The two panels should keep talking.
On the tuitioning out issue, Wood said, “I do not agree that that’s what’s best for Wiscasset . Whenever you start closing schools, you start ruining the community . It’s not necessarily going to be cheaper.” Special education and other costs also factor in, she said. “It’s not just tuition.” And Wood predicted if the high school grades were tuitioned out, some families would pull their elementary school students.
Wed, 01/06/2021 - 8:45am
A request for a ballot question to weigh the financial benefits of tuitioning high school students was put on hold Jan. 5 until the Wiscasset select board can discuss the proposal with school officials. A tentative meeting date is set for 6 p.m. Jan. 19 over Zoom.
Passions ran high Jan. 5 when the select board took up the request to form an exploratory committee or ask voters’ approval for one. Former selectman Judith Colby and budget committee member William Maloney made the request in lieu of a petition. A copy was included in the select board’s supporting documents.
Wiscasset selectmen to take up citizens’ request Tuesday night
SUSAN JOHNS Thu, 12/31/2020 - 6:30am
A cleared walkway along the front of the Wiscasset municipal building Jan. 5, 2018. File photo
Bill Maloney and Judith Colby do not know if Wiscasset would save or lose money tuitioning out its high school students. No one knows, they said in phone interviews Wednesday. And if it happened, both said they would want the town to go into it knowing the numbers. So the two are asking selectmen to ask voters next June for a committee to do the math.
“What’s the impact on money from the federal and state government; transportation costs of sending children, are they going to be accepted at say Bath or Lincoln Academy? There’s a lot of loose ends,” said Maloney, who serves on the budget committee and served on the downtown project’s public advisory committee. “So, if you get this stuff out of the way before, then if someone wants to eliminate the high school, yo