ROCKLAND, Maine — Administrators with the local school district plan to release a plan Thursday night to overhaul the district’s buildings and programs. It is expected to include the proposed closing of some of the 10 schools in the district.
Regional School Unit 13 Superintendent John McDonald will release the administration’s “Schools of the Future” plan at the meeting scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the McLain School in Rockland.
“I feel that our community will realize the comprehensive and practical nature of the work done by our superintendent and administrators so far on the educational model, curriculum and facilities plan for the future educational needs of the youth in our region,” RSU 13 Board Chairman Steve Roberts said Tuesday. “I also believe they will see a plan of superior quality and practical depth than any of options entertained in the past.”
One cloud hanging over the plan’s release is the Nov. 3 referendum in Rockland over whether to begin the withdrawal process from RSU 13, which also serves the communities of Thomaston, South Thomaston, Cushing and Owls Head.
The Thomaston Select Board issued a statement last week in anticipation of the RSU 13 plan indicating that the town could not “allow one or two of its three school facilities to be closed or revised with Rockland’s withdrawal hanging over the district. Have you ever heard of a public school being closed and then reopened as such? Thomaston alone would be left in a perilous position along with its neighbors.”
The RSU 13 Board voted 9-3 in August 2013 to merge Rockland District Middle School and the Thomaston Grammar School. But after a change of administrations, that change did not occur.
The board also overwhelmingly voiced support at that 2013 meeting to have one high school serve ninth- through 12th-graders at Oceanside High School East in Rockland. Since September 2011, eighth- and ninth-graders attend Oceanside West in Thomaston and 10th- through 12th-graders go to Oceanside East.
At that 2013 meeting, the board also discussed but took no vote on closing the Gilford Butler School in South Thomaston. That school, built in 1955, serves 88 kindergarten through second grade students.
The district has worked with a building consultant — Siemens Building Technologies — to review the condition of each building. Representatives of Siemens will be at the Thursday night meeting to go over their findings.
Any closure of a school, however, would need the support of the residents in the town where the buildings are located. If the board votes to close a school, residents could vote in a referendum to overturn that decision, but any additional cost to the district to keep a school open would be borne solely by that municipality.
If a building is closed, the ownership reverts to the town or city.
Each community has at least one school located within its borders.