CANTON — The Board of Selectmen on Thursday discussed Regional School Unit 10 and the newly formed Regional School Unit 56 sharing services.
Selectman Don Hutchins told RSU 10 Superintendent Deborah Alden it would benefit the towns in each district.
Last November, Canton, Carthage, Dixfield and Peru voted to withdraw from RSU 10, which includes Hanover, Buckfield, Sumner, Hartford, Mexico, Roxbury and Rumford. Byron also withdrew from RSU 10 in November.
Hutchins said when Canton and the other three towns started the withdrawal process, they became concerned that residents from the towns remaining in RSU 10 would feel the withdrawal was a “divorce,” and that they were thinking “very negatively” of the towns that chose to withdraw.
“RSU 10 school board members have been approached to talk about sharing some services and basically what I’m hearing back is a certain few of them won’t even listen to it,” Hutchins said. “My opinion is they do a disservice to the whole River Valley by thinking like that because we can coexist and we can benefit both RSUs.
“I don’t think the four towns that are withdrawn want any ill will against the towns in the RSU 10,” Hutchins said. “We hate to see them go through anything that’s not good for their kids. So we need a little help kind of mending fences,” he said.
Alden said although she will only be superintendent of the withdrawing towns until the end of June when the withdrawal process is complete, the districts would share services.
“The school board knows and I’ve made it really clear that we are going to have to look at sharing. I mean there’s going to have to be some sharing going on,” she said.
She suggested that the withdrawn towns should just “let a little bit of time go” in order for everyone to adjust to the changes.
She said it will be helpful when RSU 56 hires its superintendent, because she will be able to work with that person “in doing the transfer of assets and people and things like that.”
Natalie Sneller, elected Tuesday to the RSU 56 board of directors, said setting up a personnel committee will be a high priority for the board at the RSU’s first meeting on Feb. 7.
“We will have a list of folks that have expressed interest (in the interim superintendent position),” Sneller said. “We’ll have resumes for the personnel committee to start reviewing fairly quickly, so that will be the priority. We hope to have an interim superintendent in place fairly soon after our first meeting so that we can start getting things in place.”
In other news, selectmen received a letter of appreciation from resident Jackie Kilbreth. She said her daily travels over the past 17 years on Route 140 from Canton to Jay were much better this year than in previous years.
“This winter the Canton side of Route 140 has been better than the road conditions in Jay! It sure makes travel a lot easier, especially in those treacherous little S curves!” she said.
Kilbreth said she hoped her feedback would be helpful to selectmen as they continue to make decisions for the town.
mhutchinson@sunmediagroup.net
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