Wiscasset School Committee Chairman Steve Smith said Monday he has approached Regional School Unit 1’s board chairman Tim Harkins about the possibility of talks to consider making the Bath-based district’s next high school a regional high school. Also at the School Committee’s Nov. 17 meeting, Smith said the town could owe more than first projected for its share of Regional School Unit 12’s budget shortfall for the last year the town was in the district; and he warned that the town faces either a 27 percent tax hike or a gutting of some school programs if a school doesn’t close next year.

Voters on Dec. 9 will either uphold or nix the committee’s Sept. 15 decision to close Wiscasset Primary School. Smith reiterated past statements that if voters refuse to close the primary school, the committee may then vote to close Wiscasset Middle School, which could in turn mean another petition and another referendum vote. He doesn’t think the town will agree to close the middle school, so he is concerned about a large tax hike next year, Smith said.

He said the tax hike would be along the lines of what property owners would have seen this year if the town didn’t tap the reserve fund and the town’s fund balance to offset the hike for the first year of the school department.

“Obviously the town doesn’t want to keep taking money out of the reserves,” he said.

Withdrawal tab

Smith and Interim Superintendent Lyford Beverage emphasized that the town’s tab for an RSU 12 shortfall stems from the withdrawal deal worked out before the Wiscasset School Committee existed. Beverage said he was concerned that residents would link the issue to the committee, which had no hand in it.

The amount of RSU 12’s shortfall for the 2013-2014 budget year won’t be known until January, following the district’s audit, Smith said. Whatever the number is, under the town’s pullout deal with the district, Wiscasset is responsible for 26.1 percent of it, Smith said.

The shortfall had been estimated at $472,431, putting Wiscasset’s share at $122,879, Smith said. But he said the shortfall is looking like it could exceed $1 million, potentially doubling Wiscasset’s tab. Most of the $2 million the town borrowed to cover withdrawal costs has already been spent, he said.

“I’m not sure where that money (for the RSU) is going to come from,” Smith said during the meeting in the high school cafeteria.

In a series of text responses to the Wiscasset Newspaper’s questions Monday night, RSU 12 Superintendent Howard Tuttle confirmed that Wiscasset has to pay 26.1 percent of the shortfall for the 2013-2014 budget year, but, with the audit still pending, he declined to project the size of the shortfall or Wiscasset’s tab.

“(It) is difficult to make a prediction at this time. It is possible that the town of Wiscasset could owe more than what was originally estimated,” Tuttle wrote.

‘Pie-in-the-sky regional high school’

If Regional School Unit 1's board is interested, talks could start on a possible regional high school, Smith said.

Smith told fellow committee members Nov. 17 that he has spoken with RSU 1’s board chairman Tim Harkins, and that Harkins plans to bring the idea to the district's board.

Smith has brought up the concept of a regional high school before, but the conversation with Harkins represents Smith's first step toward pursuing what he on Monday called “the pie-in-the-sky idea of a regional high school.”

If the RSU supports exploring the idea, Smith said he would propose a joint committee with representatives of both panels.

Reached later, Harkins said that Smith contacted him, and he listened to what Smith had to say “primarily  out of board courtesy.” Then he asked Smith to put something in writing for him to look over and consider discussing with the RSU’s board, Harkins said.

“This was just a very casual conversation I had with Steve Smith,” Harkins said. He hadn’t expected Smith to bring it up at Monday’s meeting.

“That doesn’t really bode well for us having future discussions,” he said. Asked how likely it was the board would be interested in exploring Smith’s idea for a regional high school, Harkins said that, because the board has not discussed it, “It would be wrong for me to say one way or the other.”

The state has approved funding for new high school construction in RSU 1 that could either be a new school or renovations to Morse High School, Harkins said. The planning is in its very early stages, with some architects being interviewed and a subcommittee forming, he said.

Harkins noted that Morse accepts students from other school systems on tuition and would be open to taking high school students from Wiscasset on tuition.