SAD 70 puts RSU plans on hold

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    HODGDON — Plans of forming a three-school, Regional School Unit between SAD 70, SAD 25 and CSD 9, suffered a major snag Monday evening when one of the three schools pulled out of the plan.
    The SAD 70 School Board threw a curveball to Superintendent Robert McDaniel at Monday night’s meeting when the board voted against continuing its regionalization talks with SAD 25 (Stacyville, Sherman, Mount Chase and Patten) and CSD 9 (Crystal, Dyer Brook, Island Falls, Merrill, Oakfield, Smyrna).
    Instead, after a lengthy, and often heated debate, the board voted to explore joining SAD 29 as a regional school unit. The measure passed 7-2, with board chairman Estela Lane and Melissa Ivey opposed.
    “Houlton is already an RSU, so I am not sure how this will all play out,” McDaniel said.
    Regardless of Monday’s meeting, townspeople from both SAD 29 and SAD 70 would likely need to vote on whether to join forces. According to McDaniel, in November 2008 voters handily defeated plans of forming a large RSU. To form an RSU, a school system needs a minimum of 1,200 students. SAD 29 had enough students without joining forces with another school district. The move also leaves SAD 25 and CSD 9 in a bind as they may no longer have enough students to form an RSU on their own.
    “We’re talking about two districts instead of three and we’re only five miles apart,” board member Joel Oliver said. “I want us to make the right move to the right place.”
    “This approach is really just a bandaid,” board member David Cassidy said. “We have to face a more general problem that we have 165 kids here in this high school. Somehow we have to raise classroom sizes, and we could do that with a school that is just five miles away.”
    Enrollment at Hodgdon High School has hovered around the 165 level for the past few years,
    “Whenever we have talked about combining with Houlton, the people that I have talked to have not wanted to absorb that $5 million debt,” Ivey said.
    In Houlton, SAD 29 Superintendent Stephen Fitzpatrick, who is a former superintendent at SAD 70, said he was surprised by the move.
    “I did speak with Bob, and he indicated MSAD 70 was interested in consolidating central office with MSAD 29,” Fitzpatrick said. “I will need to inform my school board. Our board has always had an open door policy with regards to entertaining that [regionalization], so I think we would take a look at any opportunities to regionalize.”
    The matter will be revisited by the SAD 70 school board at its next meeting.
    In other business items, the board:
    • Heard a presentation from Barb Mooers and Elizabeth Connors on the senior class trip to Virginia Beach.
    • Accepted the resignations of Claudette Welton as night custodian and Tim Bossie as middle school boys basketball coach. According to McDaniel, there are no applicants for the basketball coaching position.
    • Approved Logan Quint for a custodial position.
    • Extended the superintendent’s contract for 2010-2012.
    The next school board meeting will be Monday, Jan. 11, 7 p.m.at the Central Office Board Room. It is open to the public.