SAD 41 AOS withdrawal referendum set for Feb. 12

Public hearing will be Jan. 23

MILO — An AOS 43 Plan of Termination between SAD 41 and SAD 31 of the Howland area will head to a referendum in the SAD 41 towns of Brownville, LaGrange, and Milo on Wednesday, Feb. 12. Residents wanting to learn more can attend a public hearing at the Penquis Valley School at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 23, as both dates were approved by the SAD 41 School Board during a Jan. 8 meeting at the Penquis Valley School.

In 2010 SAD 41 and neighboring SAD 31 formed Alternative Organizational Structure 43 to share central office services including a superintendent, business director, and technology director. Last month the SAD 41 directors gave their approval to the 4-page AOS 43 Plan of Termination. If passed on Feb. 12 the AOS dissolution would take effect as of July 1.

Superintendent Darcie Fournier said the plan has been approved by Maine Department of Education Commissioner Pender Makin 

“The next step in the process will involve a public hearing where we share information as a board to the communities, and that will occur in each district,” she said with SAD 41 and SAD 31 each having a session. Then next month each district will have a referendum on withdrawal.

“If 41 successfully withdraws from the AOS, the AOS will dissolve,” Fournier said, saying the referendum only needs to pass in one district to take effect for the 2025-26 academic year. “We would remain an AOS if it doesn’t pass in either district, but if it does in one district the AOS will be dissolved.”

“Another question that comes up a lot is ‘What are we going to do about the central office? What are we going to do about the superintendent? What structure are we going to take?,’” she said.

“What we have been thinking is structure for SAD 41 if the withdrawal is successful, then the structure will be determined through the budget process,” Fournier said. “It will be the (finance) committee and the administrators taking feedback and building a structure that makes sense for us next year through the budget process.”

Board Chair MaryLynn Kazyaka said she has been thinking a lot about a new administrative structure. “So obviously the first thing we are going to do after the referendum passes is to hire a superintendent and a business manager so I would like to propose we post in house anticipated openings for both of those positions,” she said.

“It will make us move along quicker once the referendum passes and get a business manager on board so we can build the rest of the budget — so that is the plan,” Kazyaka said.

During last month’s special meeting approving the AOS 43 Termination Plan, Kazyaka said there were very limited physical assets to be divided between SAD 41 and SAD 31, “It really came down to five desks, five chairs, 10 fireproof filing cabinets, and four computers that we split and if you look at it they got three of the desks and we got three chairs. We split the filing cabinets five and five and the computers are two and two.”

She said SAD 41 will serve as the fiscal agent during the dissolution process. The district and AOS 43 use the same bank, while SAD 31 uses another financial institution. 

“If we approve the plan, then we would have the account to finish out what’s left for the AOS which would be to pay for an audit and W-2s and things like that for next year after the AOS is closed,” the board chair said.

The central office is housed at the Marion C. Cook School in LaGrange, which is an SAD 41 property.

SAD 41 will put $5,500 of fund balance toward the AOS 43 termination and another $65,000 AOS 43 fund will be split between the two districts. Other components of the plan include legal information pertaining to a final 2024-25 audit and issuing tax forms to employees and contractors.

Per the plan details, both SAD 31 and SAD 41 would hire their own superintendent of schools.

AOS 43 has individual employment contracts with 11 central office employees. Ten of these contracts either expire on or before June 30 or may be terminated by the AOS for any time and for any reason. The AOS shall ensure that none of these 10 contracts extend beyond June 30. 

The remaining employment contract is with the superintendent and expires on June 30,  2026. The AOS may agree to terminate this contract as of July 1 if the superintendent has secured employment for the 2025-26 school year.

Fournier said work has begun on the 2025-26 SAD 41 budget and “This year will likely have many changes. We do plan on taking our time looking deeper at our financials and where we are at and what we need in order to build a fair and responsible budget to propose to you.”

Administrators are finalizing proposals to determine building and classroom level needs.

“One of the biggest contributing factors for trying to accomplish the withdrawal referendum in February is the budget,” Fournier said. “Currently I feel that we are right on track with our anticipated timeline that we have been talking about so far, we are looking good there.”

She encouraged the full board to attend finance and capital improvement meetings, held just before regular board meetings and are also open to the public, to discuss the budget. 

“We are going to talk numbers, we are going to talk about priorities, we are going to talk about the budget process and how it’s built and we are going to come together as a committee to present the budget to the board,” the superintendent said.

In other business, board member Molly Barker gave an update on the Tri-County Technical Center, 

“The welding program over there is now fully up and running which is excellent news,” she said.

“The building trades steel building was delivered on Dec. 5 and it was determined that the building and welding programs will be the ones to erect that (structure) so that’s going to save about $30,000 in construction costs in addition to giving those students some really cool hands-on experience,” Barker said

She said a home in Dexter being constructed by Building Trades students is on track to be completed in June . 

With help from various community partners, these students are applying what they have learned in the classroom in the real world as part of a crew to construct a family home on Main Street Hill. The approximately 1,800-square foot house will be put on the market and become someone’s home, standing as a reminder of the students’ time, talents, and hard work.