Ogunquit News
Wells-Ogunquit school talks continue while York offer remains on the table
By C. Ayn Douglass and Jennifer L. Saunders
OGUNQUIT - Cordial negotiations continued between the Ogunquit and Wells Boards of Selectmen last week as they work to reach an agreement on the dissolution of the 25-year-old "private and special law" enacted by the Maine Legislature for educating Ogunquit children in Wells.Whatever agreement is reached, the final amount for the buyout and terms under which it would be paid, must "be reasonable for Wells and achievable by Ogunquit," according to Ogunquit Board of Selectmen Chairman John Miller.
Ogunquit and Wells have continued their talks in the wake of an offer last month from the York School Department to accept Ogunquit's approximately 50 school-age students into York's schools on a tuition-only basis.
Ogunquit responded in a formal letter shared with the York School Committee by Superintendent of Schools Dr. Henry Scipione on Nov. 1, stating Ogunquit is continuing its negotiations with Wells and did appreciate the offer from York. At this time, the letter stated, Ogunquit would not be taking any action on that offer.
The York School Committee has established a timeline of September of 2007 to formalize a plan with Ogunquit, should that town decide to accept the offer, which is significantly different than the agreement in place for the Wells-Ogunquit Consolidated School District.
Under the separation agreement between Wells and Ogunquit towns 25 years ago, Ogunquit was required to pay Wells a stipend to educate, at the time, about 150 schoolchildren based on a formula the state used to establish the amount from the total property valuation of the town.
"What we're paying for far exceeds what anyone expected back in 1980 when we had 150 kids in Wells schools," Miller said at the meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 8, in Wells. "We have an aging populating in Ogunquit and $4 million is a real sticking problem with them."
Ogunquit currently has between 48 and 52 students in the Wells school system. The fee per student is in the range of $90,000 per student.
One sticking point for both towns is the manner by which the estimated $50 million dollars would be paid to Wells to buy Ogunquit out of the agreement. Wells would like a lump sum up front in order to invest the payment in the bond market. Ogunquit would prefer another option such as a smaller payment annually over 13 years or larger payment of $15 million every five years with the rationale that it would be easier to borrow and pay back, giving Wells money to invest. In order to buy out the agreement, Ogunquit would have to bond the amount, increasing substantially the original $50 million.
Wells, looking ahead to the likelihood of building a new high school, found that option unworkable.
"Wells will incur the liability of design of a new high school or any other future plans," Wells Selectman Jim Spiller said. "We know what we have (in funds) and the investments won't cover it. Wells is going to take an ultimate loss, but we can work toward the longer range plan and for the future."
Miller countered, "At the rate we're going, we may not even have any children in the high school," referring to the decrease in the Ogunquit school population.
Ogunquit Selectman Jon Speers, referring to the recent election in which taxes were the number one issue, said, "We've heard that people have had enough of taxes. One of my worst fears … is that according to the Brookings Institute … Maine seems to have excess costs in the system - too many schools, too many superintendents, too many assistant superintendents. I am fearful that if we come up to an equitable arrangement and in five years there's sweeping reform and 285 school districts become 35, I'm scared that we'll bind Ogunquit residents into doing something where we couldn't adapt to structural reform that we didn't see coming."
He referred to the buyout as "a bag of money that will (jump) the average tax bill by 20-30 percent for 20 years. It's going to be hard to sell to our voters."
Spiller had a different point of view.
"Anything less will be hard to sell with the town of Wells," he said.
Both towns have been encouraged by the legislature to try to resolve the problem internally without going to Augusta to have legislators determine the best way to dissolve the district, and both towns agree that the buyout figure must be agreeable to the voters in both towns.
The towns agreed to meet again on Thursday, Dec. 7, in Ogunquit, allowing Ogunquit to further research options and final dollar amount and come back with a counter offer.
The York School Committee will meet tonight, Wednesday, Nov. 15, at the York Public Library. No further discussions on the Ogunquit plan are scheduled until the York School Department receives information from that town.
