STACYVILLE, Maine — A grassroots effort to see if the towns that made up the former SAD 25 can reclaim their Katahdin schools is currently underway.
An informational meeting was held last Thursday at the Katahdin Elementary School to present the group’s desired plan of action with about 50 people in attendance.
Members of the focus group included Richard Schmidt, Nate Richardson, Israel Boone and Becky Boone, all of Patten; Tom Daggett, Mount Chase; John Qualey and Stewart Kelly, both of Sherman; Marie Heath, formerly of Sherman; and Heidi Knight and Charlie Cullen, both of Stacyville.
Schmidt served as chairman of the meeting and is also the chairman of the Patten Board of Selectmen. None in the group are current members of the RSU 50 school board.
“About six weeks ago, a grassroots effort began to try and organize a meeting to discuss the real challenges that face our local school district,” Schmidt said. “This effort led to the creation of a focus group. Our goal is to remain as transparent as possible.”
Several years ago, during the push for consolidation, SAD 25 and CSD 9 joined to become RSU 50 to avoid financial penalties from the state.
The majority of affected towns are sitting on certifiable petitions for withdrawal, according to Schmidt and a decision needs to made in those communities on how, or if, the process moves forward.
The group was created after the RSU 50 board announced drastic cuts needed to be done in the district to save money. Those cuts included closing Katahdin Middle-High School and sending grades 9-12 to Southern Aroostook Community School, while grades 7-8 would be moved across the street to Katahdin Elementary School.
The RSU 50 board ultimately voted against that plan, after a lengthy Jan. 21 meeting in Stacyville saw several hundred residents who pleaded with the board not to close the high school. The RSU serves 12 communities: Crystal, Dyer Brook, Hersey, Island Falls, Merrill, Moro Plantation, Mt. Chase, Oakfield, Patten, Sherman, Smyrna and Stacyville.
Thus far, no public hearings or votes have been taken in any of those communities listed. Petitions have been submitted in all six of the former CSD 9 towns, according to Schmidt, with some of those documents presented to their respective boards of selectmen nearly a year ago.
“Our municipal officials and taxpayers need to make decisions on how we move forward,” he said. “Our group’s focus is in the best interest of our children and the region’s economic prosperity.”
Schmidt said it was the group’s belief that the only way it can effectively provide the best educational opportunities for area students is to withdraw from the current Regional School Unit structure and form a new Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS).
“A main objective is to make sure that we have the ability to keep our local schools open,” he said. “Under the current RSU, this will always be a concern.”
Hard numbers on how much it would cost the towns to secede and form their own school unit were not presented in the meeting because determining those numbers is not possible. Schmidt did say, however, that the only way the plan would work would be for all six towns to withdraw.
He said it was up to the residents to go to their respective selectmen and ask them to move forward with the withdrawal process.
“We don’t feel doing nothing is an option,” Schmidt said. “We want our schools to stay open and we need to make it happen.”
Additional information on the group’s plans can be found at: https://sites.google.com/site/katahdinlocalschools/
