If Wiscasset tuitioned out its high schoolers, their and younger students' bussing would have "a lot of moving parts" to figure in, Transportation and Maintenance Director John Merry said Dec. 16. Merry, longtime holder of the job, was fielding questions from Wiscasset's future of the schools committee. He said tuitioning out the high school grades would likely mean double bus runs: An early one for the high schoolers, and a second run for younger students.

"We would probably have to go back to double runs, because if we're transporting our kids 20 minutes, half an hour away, we are required state and federally to transport K to (grade) eight kids. We are not obligated or by law responsible to transport grades nine (to) 12. However, in this particular circumstance, I suppose some will look at it as, we're displacing the kids. So I think we would need to step up and come up with a plan to get them to where we would be sending them to get them educated."

He said afternoons would be hard and would need to factor in the receiving high school's dismissal time. And he wondered if Wiscasset high schoolers would still get to attend vocational school. "We make four trips a day back and forth to Bath ... What's going to happen to our kids that have been relying on voc? And you know there's kids coming through (for which voc) is a pretty good stepping stone for them."

Committee member Debra Pooler told Merry she was glad those details were being said. "Because I've been talking to people in the community. I don't think they understand that there's a lot of pieces to it. Not just 'send the kids.'"

"Oh, no, yeah there's a lot to it. There's a lot to it," Merry said, nodding. 

Estimating transportation costs if nine through 12 were tuitioned out is hard without having an idea where those students would go, Merry said.

Grades six, seven and eight also attend Wiscasset Middle High School. Chair Duane Goud asked Merry if there would be room for K-8 all in one school. Merry said WMHS is about 20,000 square feet bigger than Wiscasset Elementary School. "Space-wise, I don't think it'd be a problem." Whichever wing the lowest grades went into would have needs such as enough bathroom space, Merry said. "The logistical part of moving the kids around, the service areas, the cafeteria, the gym ... I think we could accommodate really well." WMHS has a really nice library that could be used for more than books, he said.

Committee member and school committee member Tracey Whitney asked what a playground there would cost. Merry will look into it. He said a playground would take administrators' planning. "I can see a fence probably going up around the whole back of the building, for containment," he added. 

If Wiscasset did not tuition out its high schoolers and if it hosted a regional high school, what is there room for, Sarah Whitfield, selectmen's liaison to the future of the schools committee, asked. With grades six through 12 there, WMHS has room for about another 200 students, Merry said later in the discussion.

Merry recalled, "When I came here in '98, there were 427 kids in the high school."

Whitfield asked if there was room at WES to move sixth through eighth grades back to WES. There is not, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kim Andersson said.

Also Dec. 16, the selectmen-appointed committee heard from Dresden Selectman Lisa Hewitt on that town's years-long look at options for education. The Wiscasset committee has talked about possibly organizing its next report similarly to how Dresden fashioned its report.

Wiscasset residents voted in June 2021 to study the schools’ future, “including all options for expansion, consolidation, or continuing the status quo." The committee first met three years ago this month.