Department of Education kills Valley Unified regional school project in Aroostook
By Jessica Potila, St. John Valley Times Staff
FORT KENT — Six years worth of effort to build a new state-funded regional school in the St. John Valley officially came to an end on Wednesday.
The Maine State Board of Education voted to remove the Valley Unified Education Service Center Project from the state’s major capital school construction approved projects list with a vote of 7-0. Board Chairperson Wilson Hess, who previously served in the St. John Valley as University of Maine at Fort Kent president, abstained from the vote.
The decision came on the heels of a unanimous vote last week by the State Board of Education School Construction Committee to recommend removing the proposed school from the list.
The state board has final say on all major capital school construction projects that receive state funds.
The Valley Unified partners — Madawaska School department, SAD 33, which includes Frenchville, and SAD 27, which includes Fort Kent — faced a Dec. 31, 2020, deadline to form a Regional School Unit or lose a potential $100 million in state funding to build the grades 7-12 school, Education Commissioner Pender Makin had told the group in the fall.
The school administrative units failed to agree to the RSU governance structure during mediation on Dec. 21.
At the heart of the impasse was the SAD 27 board’s opposition to the site selection process that resulted in a Frenchville lot being chosen for the new school, and distribution of voting power on the Valley Unified board.
The SAD 27 board questioned the process that led to the 17-member Valley Unified Educational Center Site Selection Committee agreeing on a parcel next to the St. John Valley Technology Center in Frenchville as the site of the proposed school.
Voting power on the Valley Unified board was also at issue with the SAUs.
Under the Valley Unified Interlocal Agreement in which SAD 27 pays more than 50 percent of the bill (proportional to student population and valuation), but gets 33 percent of the vote, the majority of any costs would be covered by SAD 27 communities.
The SAD 27 school board sent a letter to the DOE after the failed mediation attempt in December, requesting that the Valley Unified regional school project be removed from the construction list.
The St. John Valley school is one of two the Maine Department of Education had approved for funding in its pilot project to help neighboring smaller schools deal with declining enrollment and high costs. The state has already notified the other one, which was in southern Aroostook, that its project would not go forward. The state has shifted those funds to a proposed regional school project in Piscataquis County.