KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine — A petition to withdraw from Regional School Unit 21 has been certified by Kennebunkport Town Clerk April Dufoe and was scheduled to go before the Board of Selectmen on Thursday for approval for the June ballot.
This is the second time in two years Kennebunkport voters have faced a vote on withdrawal from the RSU. In March of 2013, a petition to explore withdrawal from the district soundly was defeated by a margin of 383 in favor and 809 against, but Kennebunkport Selectman Sheila Matthews-Bull feels the cost-sharing formula approved in 2013 is hitting town residents harder than they realized it would.
“When we put this before the town once before, they voted [withdrawal] down, but the new cost-sharing formula for the RSU passed,” Matthews-Bull said. “People came up to each of us on the board later and said ‘I had no idea.’ They didn’t realize what it was going to do to their taxes.”
The cost-sharing plan approved in 2013 changed the weighted formula among Kennebunkport, Kennebunk and Arundel to be based 90 percent on state valuation and 10 percent on pupil count for costs over essential programs and services — the district formerly used a 60 to 40 split. The new formula also requires the three towns to share any new local debt, which includes the proposed $56.5 million building renovation project for improvements to Consolidated School, Mildred L. Day School and Kennebunk High School slated to go before voters in June.
Matthews-Bull said she believes all the Kennebunkport Selectmen have signed the most recent withdrawal petition. She said several board members did not sign it last time, but they all feel it’s their fiscal responsibility to find out what the voters want.
Matthews-Bull said 16 percent of the students in the RSU are from Kennebunkport, yet their share of the bond for the building project is 43 percent.
“I have no complaints with the RSU. I think they do a good job with our children,” Matthews-Bull said. “We’re just doing our jobs as representatives of the town, and now it’s going to be up to the voters. We will get a majority vote either way, and that will be their decision.”
While there is a not a formal plan in place, Matthews-Bull said making Consolidated a kindergarten through eighth-grade facility with high school choice has been discussed.
Amy Johnson, a Kennebunkport resident with three children in RSU 21 schools, including one at Consolidated, and who also is an RSU 21 board member, says she didn’t support withdrawal two years ago and as a parent doesn’t feel any differently this time.
Johnson, who spoke solely as a resident and parent, said she worries about potentially risky unknown costs around transportation and special education if the town withdrew. She also said Consolidated School is the pride of Kennebunkport as a kindergarten through fifth-grade school and sees the benefit of pooled resources created by the RSU.
“The RSU 21 staff at Consolidated school is amazing, and I’d hate to lose that for our town,” Johnson said.
Petitions for withdrawal also are circulating in Arundel and Kennebunk. Arundel residents Ann Lantagne and Fran Beaulieu have been collecting signatures for a withdrawal petition, but Town Clerk Simone Boissonneault said she has not received it and knew nothing about it. Boissonneault said she would need to verify signatures by Friday for there to be any chance of it going before voters on the June town warrant.
“It has been started, and hopefully we’ll have the rest of the signatures this week,” Lantagne said.
An Arundel petition to withdraw from the RSU was narrowly defeated in November 2012, with just 125 votes separating the two sides of the issue.
Kennebunk resident Ed Goeghan is spearheading an effort to gather signatures on a withdrawal petition in Kennebunk, which would put the issue of withdrawal to residents sometime in the future.
“The withdrawal petitions are still very active. We are not under a deadline and may miss having it on the ballot in June, but we are committed to presenting it to the selectmen soon,” Geoghan said. “The citizens of Kennebunk need the opportunity to know how we can achieve a quality, affordable education for our children.”