Portage voters OK SAD 32 withdrawal
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PORTAGE LAKE — Residents of Portage Lake voted overwhelmingly last Thursday to file a petition to withdraw from SAD 32; an action that — if approved by the Maine Department of Education — would save the community thousands of dollars.
Voters were asked, “Do you favor filing a petition for withdrawal with the Board of Directors of Maine School Administration District No. 32 and with the Commissioner of Education, authorizing the withdrawal committee to expend up to $20,000, and authorizing the Board of Selectmen to issue notes in the name of the Town of Portage Lake or otherwise pledge the credit of the Town of Portage Lake in an amount not to exceed $20,000 for this purpose?”
The referendum was approved by a vote of 88 “Yes” to 6 “No.”
“There’s a lot of support in moving forward and seeing if all of this is going to work in our favor financially,” said Barbara Pitcairn, co-chair of the Portage Lake Education Committee, which was created to explore the withdrawal option. “We’re not going to know if we’re going to withdraw until we get approval from the Department of Education. The purpose of this vote was to see if the town wanted to put together an agreement between SAD 32 and the municipality of Portage Lake to pursue the withdrawal process.
“Once we come to terms on that agreement, it will be submitted to the state and they can do one of three things … they can give us a conditional approval, they can reject our petition to withdraw, or they can approve it,” she said. “We’ll have to wait and see.”
The idea to withdraw from the district and instead tuition the town’s students to SAD 32 is solely one of dollars and cents.
“In four years, Portage Lake has seen its school budget jump from an average of $356,000 to $627,000,” said Town Manager Hollie Umphrey. “We’re paying $627,000 to educate 35 students. That equates to almost $20,000 per student, and the state average for towns our size is approximately $8,600. We’re a small village, and we have a predominant population of retirees which makes it really tough.
“Tuitioning the students could save the town anywhere from $100,000 to $180,000 per year, so there shouldn’t be any impact on the children or their education. While the tuition cost would be paid through residents’ property taxes, as well as state funding, the students wouldn’t see any difference in their education,” she said. “Their education is of the utmost importance, and we want to make sure that still continues. The only thing different would be the town’s portion of the school budget.”
Umphrey said the polls were open Jan. 5 from 2-7 p.m.
“The flow was continuous from the time we opened to the time we closed,” she said. “There was no more than a 5-10 minute lag time. We’re very happy with the results of the referendum. It just shows the wishes here of everybody in town. People know we need to do something; we need to change. People are unsure how it’s going to look, but they want to start the process. We can’t continue at this level; we just don’t have the financial resources.”
SAD 32 Superintendent Gehrig Johnson said he wasn’t surprised by the vote.
“Because of the school funding formula, which places a heavy dependence on valuation, Portage Lake has a very high value for its community … for one reason only, the lake,” he said. “When you put Portage’s valuation in with the other four towns that comprise SAD 32, they have a proportionately much higher value, which means they will pay a proportionately much higher share of the cost.
“We had a public hearing in Portage in December and it was clear that the savings are in excess of $100,000, if approved. This is really about finance; I think Portage supports its school … they want their children to attend Ashland District School, but the financial burden has been very heavy in recent years, so this is more of a financial decision than it is on where to send your kids,” he said. “Any time you have that kind of savings, people are going to look very favorably at it; we’re not surprised.”
Johnson said his staff has a draft of the withdrawal agreement nearly completed and will submit it to the withdrawal committee later this month. That committee, which will be appointed at the board of selectmen’s Jan. 18 meeting, will consist of four people — one of the petitioners, one municipal officer, one member of the public and a SAD 32 board member representing Portage Lake.
“Once we get the agreement finalized,” said Johnson, “we’ll send it to the Education Commissioner and the process will follow. If the commissioner acts on the plan favorably, it will come back for second referendum in which a two-thirds vote would be required to approve the plan.”
The withdrawal agreement, which must be submitted to the commissioner for approval within 90 days of the formation of the withdrawal committee, must contain the following:
• educational services for all students of the petitioning municipality;
• the withdrawal will not cause a need for a school construction project eligible for state funds within five years;
• transportation services;
• distribution of financial commitments, including bonds, notes and any other contractual obligations that extend beyond the proposed date of withdrawal;
• distribution of any outstanding financial commitments (e.g. salary and benefits) to the superintendent of the district; and
• disposition of all real and personal property and other monetary assets.
The commissioner has 60 days to approve the plan, while the town would need 45 days to conduct the final referendum. If all goes in favor of the town’s education committee, Portage Lake would officially cease being part of SAD 32 by the start of the 2012-13 school year.
