Owls Head considers withdrawal from SAD 5

OWLS HEAD — Townspeople seemed more interested in withdrawing from SAD 5 than trying to change the cost-sharing formula during a recent meeting.

An hour-long discussion at a special meeting last week revealed that people were upset at the town having to pay a higher percentage of the cost of education when measured against the number of students in town. The meeting was arranged by Tom Christie of the Budget Committee.

Christie had discussed the possibility of getting the funding formula changed at two Board of Selectmen meetings this summer. The board gave him its full support. People became concerned when they learned that this year’s share of the district’s budget would be $1,065,000.

Many of those attending the meeting complained about the quality of education in the district. Some residents said they wanted to return to the old system where students attended elementary school in their own town and went to high school in Rockland.

Linda Post, tax collector and treasurer, warned that it might be difficult for the town to take responsibility for its own educational system in light of the new state mandates. She said more than $1 million of the SAD 5 budget was dedicated to special education.

Christie, who conducted the meeting, observed that “there seems to be a disproportionate share of the SAD 5 budget being paid by Owls Head taxpayers.”

He explained that the town matriculated 11.1 percent of the district’s students but was required to pay 24.6 percent of the budget.

According to Christie, the town’s options were to withdraw from the district, or petition the SAD 5 board of directors for a change in the cost-sharing formula based on student enrollment or on a combination of real estate value and enrollment.

The present funding formula is based on the state valuation of real estate in the district’s three member communities — Rockland, Thomaston and Owls Head.

A petition drive was started at the meeting by Bertha Sullivan and within a few minutes 38 of the 50 residents at the meeting had signed on. Some were taxpayers, but not all were registered voters. A total of 419 signatures (10 percent of the number of votes cast in the last gubernatorial election) are needed to file the petition. The total can be obtained from a combination of residents from any of the three towns in the district.

Following submission of the petition the board will be required to appoint a nine-member committee (three from each town) to review the options. Christie hopes to have the petition presented by the Oct. 14 board meeting.

Many people in town apparently are unaware that the Owls Head Central School was built by the town, not the school district. The town scrimped and saved for many years to get the money to build the four classrooms, kitchen and large dining area, which also served as a community meeting room and was known as the town hall. The building was completed in 1952, with two classrooms added later.

Before the school was built, the town hall was located in the building now used as the Owls Head Grange hall. The town’s one-room schools at Ash Point, Ingraham’s Hill and Timber Hill near the village are no longer standing. However, the Grange hall and the building across from the fire station were both former schools.

When the Central School was built, funds were raised by the School Improvement League for kitchen equipment. The league, similar to the PTA, also put on educational and entertainment programs.

In 1958 the school was absorbed into SAD 5 in Rockland. It wasn’t long before the stage was converted into a storage area and the town hall into the school library.

A proposal to withdraw from the school district in the mid-1980s was rejected by voters who feared that many of the services and programs would be unavailable because of the high cost.