Ogunquit News
York-Ogunquit school merger discussion to continue tonight
By C. Ayn Douglass and Jennifer L. Saunders
OGUNQUIT - When the York School Committee meets tonight, Wednesday, Aug. 2, one of the scheduled agenda items will be a report from the Ogunquit Subcommittee on whether a plan to unite the two towns in a school district is feasible.The School Committee's most recent discussions on the subject occurred back in May, when School Committee member Tim Fitzgerald, who serves on the subcommittee, updated his fellow School Committee members on the status of the discussions.
At that time, Fitzgerald said the subcommittee was in the midst of researching the potential impact of including Ogunquit's students, which then numbered 44, to the York Schools. The subcommittee was also reviewing the possibility of using the Ogunquit Village School as an additional elementary school, if the merger should move forward.
That school was previously closed as part of Ogunquit's partnership in the Wells-Ogunquit Community School District.
Both Ogunquit Budget Committee member Loring DeAgazio and Ogunquit Board of Selectmen Chairman John Miller plan to attend the meeting at the York Public Library, set for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, to discuss the possible assimilation of Ogunquit's K-12 school population into the York School Department.
Currently, Ogunquit students, if not attending private schools, are being educated in Wells. Under the funding formula, the students cost the town of Ogunquit more than $90,000 each, per year, to educate.
"We need some (tax) relief somehow in the school funding formula," Miller said. "I've been fighting this since 1980 and was the chairman for the subcommittee on education. I was disappointed in the final wording, but hoped it wouldn't be as crippling as it was."
If York and Ogunquit agreed to a merger plan, Ogunquit would need to withdraw from its long-standing agreement with the town of Wells in the Wells-Ogunquit Community School District.
"We're very loosely organized in Ogunquit. It's pretty much in York's hands right now," DeAgazio said, adding that the process "really hasn't moved very quickly."
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Henry Scipione said Fitzgerald and School Committee member Mary-Jane Merrill, who also serves on the subcommittee, have prepared a report to the School Committee of their recommendations.
That report is expected to be presented and accepted on Wednesday, Scipione said, but he is advising the School Committee not to take formal action and to instead allow time for Ogunquit officials to respond, and to review the report, prior to any decisions.
Action on how to proceed from here, he said, will likely come a future School Committee meeting.
"I know York is studying the demographics of the Cape Neddick area and how many (students) there are," DeAgazio said. "We're looking at Ogunquit being accepted into the York district and possibly using the Ogunquit Village School."
DeAgazio said he knows addressing the education issues is one of the priorities the Ogunquit Board of Selectmen set last month.
"Whatever happens must be passed by the legislature," he said.
See next week's edition of The Independent for a full report on the Aug. 2 meeting.
