Alna selectmen on Sept. 13 announced this year’s tax rate is the same as last year’s, at $20.45 per $1,000 of a property’s assessed valuation. But bills should head down slightly because the homestead exemption is up this year, from $15,000, to $18,000, First Selectman David Abbott said.

Education, the biggest piece of the property tax pie, was up, but the town had more surplus to tap, thanks in part to the deferred payment arrangement with plowing contractor Hagar Enterprises, Abbott said. He said the board offset taxes with $100,000 from excise taxes and more than $131,000 from surplus.

Town Clerk Liz Brown expected tax bills to go out soon and be due Oct. 28.

The meeting’s public comment portion lasted an hour, all of it on school choice and the board’s residency policy. Three Alna mothers – Cathy Jones, Ona Brazwell and Anne Simpson – had questions after selectmen’s recent response to the state over the policy requiring property ownership or a year’s lease.

The board reiterated the position it gave the state: The board is going by an agreement that was part of Alna’s joining Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12.

Responding to the three residents’ questions, selectmen said Alna has some very poor people, and that the list of people unable to pay their taxes will grow if the town continues to attract families looking for paid tuition to private schools. The town pays the school district the same per year for private and public school students, but if school choice only covered public schools, the student count wouldn’t be growing as much, selectmen said.

The town doesn’t have a large enough tax base to sustain the growth, Second Selectman Melissa Spinney said.

Cathy Jones suggested changing zoning to attract business. Third Selectman Doug Baston replied, Alna isn’t keeping businesses out with zoning – WalMart could come in, he said. Selectmen said Alna isn’t attracting businesses, it’s attracting people who want to send their children to private schools.

Baston added, longtime residents are concerned, and he said the town could end up limiting school choice to public schools. Selectmen asked the women what they would think of making that change and grandfathering all children, including newborns, living in town on the date of the vote. It’s a hypothetical he’s been hearing, Baston said.

“This is a really hard call for me. I’m not a stand in line ... public school kind of person,” Jones answered. She’s an anomaly, who would educate her children in the wilderness of Tibet if she could, she said. But she said she is a huge believer in choice, and that public school choice might work.

Brazwell said before entertaining a change, the board should run some numbers. Baston said if a proposal is made, it would be from the townspeople, not the board.

Earlier in the discussion, Spinney, who worked in statistics as a neuroscientist, shared information looking at the town’s student count and the breakdown on private and public school enrollment. Alna’s count dropped from 110 students in 2010-11 to fewer than 105 in 2013-14; it has been rising ever since, to 120 last year and, in the September estimate, additional students, short of 125, according to Spinney and the graphs she provided at the Wiscasset Newspaper’s request. Nearly all of Alna’s students used to attend public schools; now it’s closing in on half public and half private, she said.

Said Baston, “We’ve got a very dangerous trend. And I don’t know what to do about it ... There’s no easy solution to this. And we’re all people of good will. We’re all trying to figure this out.”

He wants people “of modest means” to still be able to live there, helping keep the town’s demographic diverse, he said.

“That’s so important to us,” Jones agreed. “Age-wise, too. Being one of the younger families, and then there’s a huge gap and then there’s this older, older population ... That’s why we have been encouraging people to look” and telling them all the things Alna offers, she said. Younger families get involved civically, such as helping older people and helping maintain old buildings, Jones continued. “You need young, vibrant community people to do that.”

Baston replied, the frustration is that very few of Alna’s younger adults volunteer in town. At another point, Jones, who is studying to be a registered nurse, said she and some others in town are interested in bringing back the Alna First Responders.

Brazwell said she wants Alna to stay a small town, and to have that include children, so her children have friends.

“We all do,” Spinney said.

The board meets next at 6 p.m. Sept. 27 at the town office.