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RSU 9 applies to form regional service center

6 mins read
Left to right is Director Scott Erb of Farmington, Tami Labul of Farmington, Angela LeClair of Wilton, Betsey Hyde of Temple, Cape Cod Hill School Principal Darlene Paine, Superintendent Tom Ward and Vice Chair Cherieanne Harrison of Wilton.

FARMINGTON – Regional School Unit 9 is seeking to form a regional service center with a number of other local school districts, leveraging relationships built through the existing Western Maine Education Collaborative to meet a new state directive to share services.

The RSU 9 board unanimously approved having the administration submit an application to form the Western Maine Regional Service Center with a number of other potentially-participating districts, including RSU 10 in the Dixfield area, SAD 44 in Bethel, RSU 56 in Dixfield, RSU 58 in Salem and RSU 78 in Rangeley. Another potential partner, RSU 73 in Livermore Falls, has already voted not to apply. The initial application round, which includes a Nov. 20 deadline, does not require any district to continue with the process and join an actual service center, Superintendent Tom Ward told the school board Tuesday evening.

The state is reducing the amount of money each district receives for system administration by $45 per student, beginning in the next budget cycle. For RSU 9, with its 2,375 students, that would mean a loss of $100,000. The state is also offering an incentive, for districts that join a so-called Regional Service Center – a centralized hub for school services such as substitute teachers, support staff, professional development and administration. Districts that join a service center would receive additional funds into their system administration line, making up for the loss. Per the most recent information coming from the state, Ward said that Mt. Blue would be in line to receive $400,000 next year and $500,000 the year after that; those funds do not include the money the district would lose due to the system administration cut.

Currently, the deadline to participate in an initial application round is Nov. 20, with districts providing the Department of Education a summary of their intended collaboration. A second, more intensive application would be submitted by April 15. The DOE would provide an individual to help guide the district through the process.

The service center initiative was heavily discussed during the recent Maine School Board Association conference. At that point, Ward said, the law firm Drummond Woodsum volunteered to meet with school districts in the Western Maine Education Collaborative about forming a service center.

The entire process includes a number of unknowns. There has been talk of delaying the service center initiative via a bill, and it isn’t clear how many districts will agree to join a service center. One potential partner, RSU 73 in Jay/Livermore Falls, has already voted against joining. Two other districts, RSU 10 and SAD 44, have voted to join the service center.

Other concerns include the present inability to leave a service center once it forms – although Ward noted that preliminary application did not commit the district – an element that Ward said likely stems from the 2007-08 consolidation process which resulted in a number of new districts forming briefly, then splitting back apart. The state may be receptive to creating a method for districts to leave service centers, Ward said.

Directors in Mt. Blue were blunt in regards to the incentive system. “I think the incentives are penalties,” Director Irving Faunce of Wilton said, adding that Mt. Blue should apply to avoid losing state funding.

The Western Maine Regional Service Center would collaborate in three ways, per the application the district intends to submit to the DOE. Participating districts could make use of the Penacook Learning Center, a day treatment program operating out of Rumford that was funded by an EMBRACE grant, once it was fully staffed. In the past, Special Education Director Christine Gatto-Shea said, that facility had not been able to accommodate some RSU 9 out-of-district placement students, either due to specific needs or adequate space, but that could change if it was fully staffed, potentially saving money for the district.

The service center districts would manage the hiring, training and management of substitute teachers. Ward said that Mt. Blue and most districts had issues finding enough qualified subs, and having a regional organization made sense with or without the state directive.

“We would have pursued this anyway, without the incentive,” Ward said.

The service center would also look to plan menus across every district and purchase food in bulk. RSU 10 and RSU 44 already do this, through a shared Food Director, and planners believe that other districts could be added into that effort.

The center would have its own board, made up of superintendents and school board directors. The center would not wholly subsume the  Western Maine Education Collaborative, which would continue to assist its members with supply purchases and professional development, but instead would work with that organization.

The vote to submit the application prior to the Nov. 20 deadline was unanimous.

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4 Comments

  1. I’d like to know why RSU voted against this. Loosing state funding hardly makes sense for Spruce Mountain.

  2. I also would like to know why # 73-Jay area-voted against this. Our school bill is way to much now and this seems to make it higher if the state penalizes us. Taxes just keep going up and up here. If one complains they will tell us it is for the children. Well, this would possibly combine some of the services and lower some costs.

  3. A “neutral” person should be hired to figure this out. Each and every school district has their own agendas, and you can bet if one or another is put in charge, the other districts are going to come out on the short end of the rope. This is not a time to play favorites when each town is being strangled by costs of providing education.

  4. Simple Simon, you’re on to something and there’s more come. WHO will be in charge, who will become 2nd, and third etc.? Look what happened when SADs were formed.Kids from out of town were looked upon differently,last picks in sports teams etc. Ask them as adults today and you’ll hear what it was like. Administrators are already juggling for position. It’s being planned and has been for some time! To be fair and clean, the slate should be wiped off and new faces placed in charge from away, no favorites, no hidden agendas.

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