SAD 41 directors opt out of regional comprehensive high school pursuit

MILO — Rather than put approximately $133,300 of district funds toward startup costs and a site analysis, the SAD 41 Board of Directors has decided to discontinue its participation in the pursuit of a regional comprehensive high school project with several other area school districts.

“We need to take a vote on whether the board will front our share of the cost of the site analysis,” Superintendent Darcie Fournier said during a Nov. 6 school board meeting in the Penquis Valley School cafeteria. She said the last time the directors discussed the project they said they were not in favor of spending district monies for this purpose.

In 2022 representatives from SAD 41, SAD 4 of Guilford, the Dexter-based SAD 46, and RSU 64 of Corinth met with the Maine Department of Education and were told they needed to cover the estimated $800,000 costs of an engineering study and other planning efforts before receiving $100 million in state funding to build the project. MDOE officials said the state would not fund the planning expenses, with these instead to be divided between the school units. No districts were locked in as public votes on formally joining would be taken in the future if the project progresses.

Fournier said earlier this year the MOE offered to fund half of the costs with three districts having $133,300-plus divided shares of the other half. 

She said RSU 64 has decided to discontinue its involvement. “Corinth kind of jumped in and were interested, but their board is not interested in fronting the money,” the superintendent said.

“This is our last opportunity to take part in that program,” Fournier said. She said later in the meeting that there would be a motion on the funding and a yes vote would continue SAD 41’s involvement and voting no would officially be the district’s exit prior to a January deadline with the state.

The superintendent said the regional comprehensive high school has been discussed for a number of years. “What a fantastic idea it would be if it were in our backyard,” she said, saying immediate concerns stemmed from potential long travel distances for students with the campus to go somewhere in an area spanning all the involved districts.

“We did not budget for this, it would need to go to referendum,” Fournier said. 

Board member Roberta Trefts said most of the planning meetings have taken place either in Guilford or further away from SAD 41 communities. She said the school is an amazing opportunity but the likely travel distances for district students would be too much for five days a week.

Board member Denise Hamlin asked if there were any reserve accounts that could be used for SAD 41’s share.

Fournier said there is about $200,000 in the capital renovations reserve fund, but these monies are intended for upgrades to current facilities.

When asked, she said SAD 4 and SAD 46 are still both in favor of the project. “They plan to continue and apply for the new grant opportunity as a partnership rather than a regional program,” the superintendent said.

Officials in the neighboring districts have discussed the possibilities of submitting a consolidated application to the Maine Capital School Construction program for a new high school and technical center to serve SAD 46 and SAD 4. This application would be due in June 2025. 

Shortly thereafter the SAD 41 board unanimously voted down a motion to approve a $133,300 referendum to participate in the regional school site plan and analysis.

More than a half decade ago SAD 46 headed up an application between itself and SAD 4 for a $100 million first-of-its-kind secondary institution integrated with a career and technical school along with the University of Maine System and the Maine Community College System, and it would support industry training programs. Later on in the process SAD 41 joined in a non-binding agreement and then RSU 64. 

At first projects based in the Madawaska and Houlton areas ranked higher, but these proposed schools did not progress as residents could not agree on where to put the building.

In other business, Devin Perkins was appointed as the Penquis Valley Middle School boys basketball coach to round out these positions for the 2024-25 winter season.

Last month the board approved the appointments of Camron Bailey as the high school boys coach with Erika Landry to lead the JV squad. The plan is for girls varsity basketball to return after a JV-only schedule last year with Jay Murano to serve as the head coach and Beth Heal to be the JV coach. Tammy Murano will lead the Patriots cheer coach.

For the other middle school positions, Derek Perkins will coach the Railroader girls and Amanda Beckwith will serve as cheer coach.