LUDLOW, Maine — SAD 70 may lose yet another town from its district following a vote by residents in Ludlow to begin the withdrawal process.
At a special election held Thursday, residents voted 44-19 Thursday in favor of beginning the withdrawal process and agreed to spend up to $3,500 for that process.
The move comes on the heels of Cary Plantation leaving SAD 70 effective at the end of the current school year. That community, however, is tuitioning all of its students to SAD 70.
Ludlow officials have previously expressed an interest in pulling out of SAD 70 in favor of joining neighboring RSU 29 in Houlton. There are 40 children in Ludlow, with 27 of those youths attending SAD 70 and 13 already attending RSU 29 schools.
SAD 70 Superintendent Scott Richardson said Friday he was disappointed by the vote.
“I believe that SAD 70 offers a great educational program in a small, family atmosphere,” Richardson said. “Our teachers and staff are dedicated and the SAD 70 School Board is committed to providing a quality education without increasing costs to the taxpayers. Over the last nine years, the budget has averaged a 0.41 percent increase per year. SAD 70 wants all the towns to remain a part of the school district and hopes that the residents of the town of Ludlow feel the same.”
SAD 70 is currently made up of Hodgdon, Amity, Haynesville, Ludlow, New Limerick, Linneus and Cary.
Ludlow Town Clerk Diane Hines must now notify the school district and the Commissioner of Education on the findings of the vote and include the reasons the town wishes to withdraw. A four-member committee, including one selectman, one school board representative, one member from the group that filed the original petition and one member of the general public, will convene.
However, the town of Ludlow currently does not have a representative on the SAD 70 school board since Laura Geiger resigned several months ago. That seat must be filled by selectmen before the committee can be formed.
Ludlow board chairman Theron Bickford has previously said rising costs for the county, state and school are motivating factors to explore withdrawing from SAD 70.
Selectmen have also expressed reservations about a loan that the school district was pursuing to pay for a number of upgrades to both Hodgdon High School and Hodgdon Mill Pond School. A hearing on that loan will be held the district on Tuesday, April 26, the same night that the district will hold its budget meeting.
The town originally petitioned the state to withdraw from SAD 70 in the spring of 2012. A public hearing and town vote were held where residents gave the go-ahead to start exploring the withdrawal process by a referendum vote of 67-36 on March 29, 2012.
Before that withdrawal process could continue, however, the state’s Education Department informed the town that the petition Ludlow submitted to first put the measure onto a ballot did not contain the required number of valid signatures. Therefore, the process was nullified.
Later that same year, the matter was resurrected, and enough signatures were gathered to place the question on that year’s November ballot. At the polls, the measure failed by a vote of 79 “yes” and 150 “no.” Nearly 72 percent of the registered voters participated in that election.
