E. Machias starts plans to exit SAD 77 Selectmen to meet with education commissioner to assess possibilities

EAST MACHIAS – The town’s three selectmen will travel to Augusta on Wednesday to ask the state commissioner of education for permission for the town to leave SAD 77.

Kenneth “Bucket” Davis, Jack Gardner Jr. and Dale Richardson have a 3 p.m. appointment to meet with Susan Gendron at the Maine Department of Education.

Richard Larsen, the town’s consultant on school issues, will make the trip with the selectmen, but Ron Mosley, the town’s attorney, won’t.

The meeting was scheduled as the latest of several steps East Machias is taking as part of the process to exit a school district. It follows a town vote, 130-10, last month, in which residents supported the selectmen’s resolve to seek an alternative to current school governance.

“We will air just a few things at this meeting, and we hope to get a feel if the commissioner is going to allow this,” Davis said Friday. “I was pleased to get a fairly quick response from her in setting this meeting.”

If East Machias receives permission to leave SAD 77, the town faces additional issues in coming up with a new governance structure. To run the Elm Street School and tuition the town’s high school students to Washington Academy, the town would look to share services for a superintendent, secretary, special education, art and music programs.

Scott Porter, superintendent for both School Union 102 in Machias and SAD 19 in Lubec, has approached East Machias about possibly sharing some services, Davis said, if East Machias ends up on its own.

“We have three or four options,” Davis said, noting that working with Washington Academy is another of them.

The drive to leave SAD 77 is the culmination of a divisive issue that had East Machias battling the other towns all spring. Machiasport, Cutler and Whiting are the other schools within the district.

A districtwide survey indicated that taxpayers were willing to consolidate the four schools rather than raise taxes. But the board voted to keep open all four schools this year, rather than close one or two to keep the district budget in check.

Further, the district voted to stick with its current local funding formula rather than switch to a more widely used method of assessing towns.

Under the current formula, East Machias is paying about $90,000 more this year than it would if the three other member towns had voted to change the formula.

If Gendron indicates Wednesday she is not favorable to the town leaving SAD 77, then selectmen will call in Mosley.

“We feel we don’t need the lawyer in Augusta with us this time,” Davis said. “But if we don’t get what we want with the commissioner, we won’t stop with her. We could go to the Legislature, if we have to.”