York Town News
Selectmen, School Committee, Budget Committee to discuss YHS Arts Wing
By Jennifer L. Saunders
YORK - Local officials are making good on a pledge they made back in May, when a proposal to build an arts wing at York High School failed at the polls by a margin of 411 votes.The proposed $5.85 million project, which was scaled back from a larger plan in an effort to allay budgetary concerns, had the unanimous support of the School Committee and the majority support of the Budget Committee.
The Board of Selectmen, however, voted against the plan by a margin of 4-1, with Selectmen Chairman David Marshall casting the one vote in favor of the project.
In the end, the voters also turned down the plan, but by a much smaller margin. At the time, arts wing project supporters and others noted that the election's timing - within one week of the Mother's Day flood that ravaged York Beach and drenched properties across town - resulted in the voters' denial of every capital request except the purchase of land for municipal uses in York Village. In that case, the funds in question were already in the town's coffers and the approval did not result in any impact on the tax rate.
Also at the time, the School Committee agreed to seek the input of the selectmen and the Budget Committee members on where to go next in terms of the demonstrated need for the project.
York High School's music and performing arts groups have outgrown the facility, and students spoke out in the weeks prior to the vote detailing their frustration and concerns with many aspects of the current auditorium and lack of rehearsal and performance space.
As School Committee Chairwoman Patty Hymanson pointed out at the time, the general consensus expressed throughout the town was that the project itself was a worthwhile one, but that the issue was one of cost concerns.
School Committee Vice Chairman Marilyn Zotos agreed, urging a meeting of the minds between the three governing boards that oversee budget requests in the weeks following the election.
"You honor the vote, you hear the result, and respectfully so. The issue is that the problem doesn't go away," Zotos said during the School Committee's June meeting to discuss the arts wing issue. "... I think the voters deserve confidence that we have three senior boards that are communicating."
On Thursday, Sept. 28, the School Committee is hoping to do just that.
The School Committee will hold a joint meeting with the Board of Selectmen and Budget Committee at 7 p.m. at the York High School Auditorium with one item on the agenda: the discussion of the auditorium/performing arts wing.
The meeting is open to the public.
For more on upcoming town and school meetings, visit www.yorkmaine.org and www.yorkschools.org.
