Ogunquit News
York-Ogunquit school talks continue...but no action taken yet
By Jennifer L. Saunders
YORK - Discussions are continuing on the subject of whether the York School Department should enter into a partnership with the town of Ogunquit to bring the 44 students from that town into the local schools.At last week's School Committee meeting, Tim Fitzgerald, a member of the board who serves on the Ogunquit sub-committee, updated his fellow School Committee members on the status of the discussions.
"We're doing some more research on what the impact of taking in Ogunquit students would do to York and also looking at a request they have in Ogunquit at looking at an elementary school they used to use," Fitzgerald told the committee.
At this point, he said, school officials are still continuing to research the options and no recommendation has been made at this time.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Henry Scipione added he recently took part in a walk-through at an Ogunquit elementary school that was closed as part of Ogunquit's school partnership with Wells.
Scipione confirmed the committee remains in a "fact-finding" stage and will update the board as more information is gathered.
If the York School Department decided to move forward with such a plan, Ogunquit would need to withdraw from its long-standing agreement with the town of Wells in the Wells-Ogunquit Community School District.
Earlier this month, a total of 56 Wells residents and five Ogunquit residents turned out to vote on the Wells-Ogunquit Community School District budget, which included an 8.7 percent increase over the prior year.
Following that vote, Ogunquit officials reported that the portion of the budget to be raised by property taxes - more than $17.7 million - translates to excessively high costs for Ogunquit residents. The cost of educating Ogunquit's small number of students rises to the tune of a staggering $96,500 per student, Budget Review Committee member Loring DeAgazio reported last week.
That amount comes as a result of a state funding formula that is based on the valuation of each town in such a district, according to DeAgazio, and results in an increase of 36 cents on the tax rate for Ogunquit.
"I'd like to see the town withdraw from the school district," DeAgazio said in a prior interview. "…We've had preliminary talks with York and that is in the hands of the (York) School Committee and we're waiting to hear from them."
Associate Editor Jennifer L. Saunders can be reached via e-mail at jsaunders@yorkindependent.net.
