On Tuesday, Dec. 9, voters will decide if this school year is the last one at Wiscasset Primary School, or if the school committee needs to go back to the drawing board for other solutions to the town’s spike in education costs since leaving Regional School Unit 12.

Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Wiscasset Community Center on Gardiner Road. Absentee ballots were available at the town office until Thursday, Dec. 4, at 5 p.m.

Beginning, Friday, Dec. 5, someone would need a special circumstance to get one, Wolfe said.

As of Monday, Dec. 1, the office had issued 102 absentee ballots and gotten 71 back.

A majority of “yes” votes in the referendum would uphold the Wiscasset School Committee’s Sept. 15 decision to close the primary school. Interim Superintendent Lyford Beverage has said the closure would save the town hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So would closing Wiscasset Middle School, but the primary school costs more to keep open, according to Beverage’s figures. A majority “no” vote would block the primary school’s closure, and could lead the committee to seek to close the middle school, Chairman Steve Smith has said. In a new interview Nov. 30, little more than a week before the referendum vote, Smith said he remained concerned that the lone ballot item at the polls might draw a light voter turnout.

Attendance at a recent public hearing on the closure vote did nothing to dissuade that concern, he said.

Smith estimated that about 50 residents came. That raises the question of how many people will show up to vote, and how informed their votes will be, he said. However, Smith said he hopes voters will support the committee’s decision to close the school.

“We’ve worked long and hard on this (and) we made the most informed decision that we could,” he said.

When asked how he thinks the vote will go, Smith said: “I really don’t know.” Support still appears strong for keeping the middle school open, but some primary school parents have actively opposed that school’s closure, he said.

While Wiscasset Primary School Principal Mona Schlein has expressed concern about the middle school’s suitability to house younger students, she has said the primary school’s staff would stand behind voters’ decision. On Monday, she reiterated that whichever way the vote goes, the staff will continue to work to give students the best education possible. She called on residents to turn out to vote; it’s an important decision for the town, she said.

A petition filed by Wiscasset middle and primary school parent Andrea Main got the referendum on the ballot. Main has said she isn’t against closing a school, but that she wants everyone to have a voice and have the best information possible about all the schools.