The wait is over for state confirmation on funding to plan a program Wiscasset would host for area students with behavioral needs, Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot announced May 25.

Word came in April that the Maine Department of Education had picked the proposal involving Wiscasset and partners Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12, Boothbay Harbor-based Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS) 98, Bath-based Regional School Unit 1 and Bath Regional Career and Technical Center. But Wilmot said the grant award had a window of time for appeals. That window has closed, clearing the way for funding of the $518,000 to plan the program, Wilmot said. She said the money will be available for a year and a half, but added, organizers may ask to extend that window.

“I’m thrilled,” Wilmot said when she updated the School Committee Thursday night. The partnering districts’ superintendents and special education directors and Wiscasset Middle High School Principal Peg Armstrong have been talking, and subcommittees are working with MDOE on items including a draft of a contract to access the funds, Wilmot said.

Officials have said the aim of the regional effort is to save money and avoid out-of-district placements for the region’s middle and high school students with behavioral needs; those placements happen when a student needs more support than a school department can provide in-house. “Our goal is for them to come back to our home community and (to) provide their educational programming here, out of this school,” Wilmot said in Thursday’s meeting at the WMHS library.

Putnam: LePage’s suggested superintendent pare-down ‘crazy’

Committee member Jason Putnam criticized Gov. Paul LePage’s recent suggestion to have fewer superintendents due to Maine’s enrollment drop. In his weekly message April 19, LePage states, “We could do with one for each county.” And an article posted April 18 at pressherald.com quotes the governor as saying Maine probably needs a dozen.  Putnam commented to the committee,  “I think he’d like to have 12 superintendents for the entire state–he feels (that) would be enough. I think everybody in the room here knows that that is not a good idea. In fact, it’s crazy.”

Putnam asked the committee to endorse a Maine School Boards Association letter and send copies to State District 87 Rep. Jeff Hanley, R - Pittston, and State District 13 Sen. Dana Dow, R - Waldoboro. The letter opposes the governor’s plan to drop state aid for system administration; the plan devalues superintendents’ roles, the letter argues.

Members planned to have Putnam work with Administrative Assistant Stacey Souza to draft a cover letter for the committee to sign and send along with the MSBA letter to the legislators. Craig sought time to decide. “I don’t know if today I have enough information.”  Chairman Michael Dunn said, “We’ll give Glen a day to think about it.”

The Wiscasset Newspaper has a message into the governor’s press secretary seeking comment from Gov. LePage on Putnam’s statement.