FARMINGTON — The Regional School Unit 9 board of directors unanimously voted Tuesday, April 23 to move forward in the process of regionalizing select services through a regional service center.
Western Maine Education Collaborative is expected to extend services through a newly proposed organization, Western Maine Regional Service Center, Superintendent Tina Meserve said. Other districts involved in the proposed Interlocal Agreement include Spruce Mountain, Fayette, Lisbon, Mt. Abram, Carrabec, Rumford, Madison, Telstar and Dirigo.
WMEC would still remain a separate organization for other districts seeking to collaborate with its members, Meserve said.
Regional service centers are intended to promote cost savings through the consolidation of services.
By joining WMRSC, RSU 9 is expected to have a gain of $104,000 in subsidy, Meserve added.
Currently, the district spends $4 per student, or about $9,600, to be part of the WMEC. “Essentially, we will be paying $5 per student to be part of the service center, an increase of about $2,400,” she said.
The WMRSC Interlocal Agreement must first be approved by the Maine Commissioner of Education, she said.
Meserve said the district would have to utilize at least two options offered by the proposed service center. Professional development would be one option, she said.
“Hopefully, we can also take advantage of shared Gifted and Talented support,” Meserve said in a phone call following the meeting. “The idea is to provide G/T student workshop days for collaborative enrichment education with other G/T students. There will also be training which will bring together all GT staff.”
The state will pay for each district’s student information system under the regionalization plan, Meserve said.
If approved by the state, the service center would begin operation in July 2020. It could also offer shared options for a transportation routing system and weather service, Meserve said.
The reason regionalization did not happen in the past, she said, was due to barriers put in place by the Department of Education.
“Under the old rules, if we joined a service center, we would have been locked in,” Meserve said. “DOE has taken away the divorce clause, meaning we will no longer be locked into something like we were before. If we find out regionalization will not work for us, we can leave.”
Voters will consider joining WMRSC at the Tuesday, May 28 district budget meeting. Meserve said the question will be answered at the meeting and will not be part of the June 11 budget referendum vote.
The district budget meeting will be held at Mt. Blue Campus in Bjorn Auditorium beginning at 7 p.m.
In other matters, Ethan Wright was hired to fill the district choral teacher position.
“Ethan comes to us from Buckfield,” said Meserve. “We are very excited to have him here.”
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