Maine has agreed to let Wiscasset be in the next batch of schools serving special education to children younger than school-age, if the local school department says yes. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kim Andersson told the school committee Feb. 25, she received a "Congratulations" earlier that day confirming the school department can be in cohort 2 of a program stemming from a 2024 law that will apply across the state in 2028.

The committee in January agreed to apply to be in the cohort. The committee made, and has made, no commitment to joining the cohort. Andersson reminded the committee Feb. 25, it can still decline; being in it brings revenue for serving students the schools will ultimately serve anyway, she said. In a change from how cohort 1 participants were paid, departments in cohort 2 will be reimbursed per pupil, based on each child's disabilities, she said.

"They're building the ship as they fly it," Andersson said of the program. She said it shifts services such as occupational, physical and speech therapy from the state to local level for the very young.

The committee has made no decision. Said Andersson, "We don’t have to accept it” and, if they don’t, her proposed move of half the Wiscasset Elementary School assistant principal’s time to serving as a PreK coordinator would not occur, she said. 

Andersson's update to the committee on the cohort came in a workshop on the 2025-26 budget she continues to draft. Andersson offered varied budget scenarios Feb. 25, including potentially either shifting or cutting personnel, and she told the committee she will ask it to pick a number — such as how much to propose hiking the local ask over last year's — not a scenario. “And then I’ll figure out how to get to that number in the way that I see fit.” The committee responded it first wants details by line item on two of the scenarios

The local ask in the four scenarios ranged from a 10.9% hike to 4.2%.

Plans called for another workshop March 4 and a possible committee vote March 11 on a budget proposal. After the committee approves a budget offer, voters will consider the proposal piece by piece in a town meeting; the budget that results goes to a vote at the polls in June.

Andersson again noted personnel contracts have upped costs for 2025-26 but that the biggest driver in the next local ask is the hit revenue has taken from lower state aid to Wiscasset's schools, due to a higher valuation the state placed on Wiscasset and due to enrollment she has said the department is working to build back up. And she said state aid could be down again for Wiscasset schools in 2026-27. “So I would recommend not to avoid the hard work because it’s coming at us," she told the committee as it considers what to propose for 2025-26.