The Board of Selectmen will consider on Sept. 4 a request from the Wiscasset Withdrawal Committee, which is charged with negotiating a withdrawal from Regional School Unit 12, to form another committee to identify the economic impact of such a move.

Committee member Jeff Slack, also a member of the Board of Selectmen, made the request to the board on Tuesday night. One board member was absent, and the decision was continued until Sept. 4.

Displeased with the town’s costsharing formula with RSU 12, and with a lack of local control over the schools, residents of both Wiscasset and Westport Island voted in June to withdraw. State statute dictates that withdrawal agreements must be in place within 90 days of the committee’s first meeting, which was on July 19.

That means an Oct. 17 deadline for the Withdrawal Committee.

“We’re asking the town to create another committee to explore the future options of the school system,” said Jason Downing, a Withdrawal Committee member. “Our task is to negotiate a withdrawal agreement with the RSU. We’re still doing fact-finding.”

The school unit consists of Alna, Chelsea, Palermo, Somerville, Westport Island, Whitefield, Windsor and Wiscasset.

An RSU 12 ad hoc committee is negotiating with the Withdrawal Committee on behalf of the district. The ad hoc committee is invited to attend the committee’s next meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Wiscasset Fire Station.

Wiscasset has 23 percent of the students but pays 35 percent of the RSU costs, the Withdrawal Committee maintains. An RSU board member, however, argues that Wiscasset pays about 19 percent.

“There’s quite a bit of numbers involved,” Downing said. “We are paying 35.08 percent of the RSU. But they’re coming in with a new cost-sharing formula.”

More information

Currently, Downing said, the Withdrawal Committee is looking for more information on those numbers.

Though an extension to the deadline is possible, the committee wants to meet the Oct. 17 deadline, Downing said.

“We’d love to have a first draft done by mid-September,” he said. “We’re going to try to make (the deadline) because that’s what the town voted for.”

Also on Tuesday night’s agenda, the selectmen confirmed Sept. 11 as the date for a special town meeting regarding department budgetary issues. Voting at the Wiscasset Community Center will be from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Voters will consider new budgets for the code enforcement office and Lincoln County Television. They rejected requests from both departments during the annual town meeting in June.

The board has come in with a $48,674 CEO budget instead of the original $54,996 request, a $50,000 CEO contingency compared to the original $60,000 and $7,000 instead of the original $5,000 Lincoln County Television request.

lgrard@timesrecord.com