School plan ponders a regional future

Kennebec Journal, April 5, 2007

(excerpt) School and Budget Committee members talked Tuesday evening about how many worn-out windows $51,000 would replace at Vassalboro Community School.

Not all of them, they decided.

They also talked about whether to buy a new bus next year, after not updating the fleet for two years and with the state's generously applied road salt eating away at frames and brake lines.

Then, Budget Committee members started asking: Why bother including money in the 2007-08 budget to maintain the building or the buses?

If the Legislature approves the proposed statewide educational reorganization, by next year Vassalboro's school building and buses would be owned by the new regional entity, not by the town.

In that event, the new regional board -- on which Vassalboro would be unlikely to be a major player -- would decide which buildings to fix and how many buses to buy.

School Committee member Barry Bernier said the committees ought to act as though they are responsible for next year. The students will still need the school, whoever owns it. But Budget Committee member Philip Haines said the regional board would have authority to move students around, too.