WISCASSET

Regional School Unit 12 will consider a tentative agreement that would pave the way for Wiscasset’s withdrawal from the district in July 2014.

The pact between RSU 12’s ad-hoc withdrawal committee and the RSU Withdrawal Committee of Wiscasset may culminate months of negotiations — some of it tense — between the two committees.

If the RSU 12 Board of Directors so votes, Wiscasset’s request to withdraw would go to the state Department of Education, then to Wiscasset residents in a November referendum.

If the plan passes each of those hurdles, Wiscasset would manage its three Wiscasset public schools on its own.

The RSU 12 board will consider the agreement at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the RSU 12 Central Office in Somerville.

Currently, RSU 12 manages Wiscasset High School, Wiscasset Middle School and Wiscasset Primary School, in addition to other schools in the far-flung school unit. Wiscasset residents voted last summer to form a withdrawal committee in an attempt to form their own independent school unit.

“The biggest reason was control,” said Jefferson Slack, who serves on both the withdrawal committee and the Board of Selectmen. “People wanted control of their schools again.

“The agreement’s pretty much done,” he said. “We’re just working on minor points — language and such.”

Slack acknowledged that, for at least the first year, education costs would increase under a new Wiscasset school administrative unit.

As it stands, the town pays 26 percent of the RSU 12 operating budget, he said.

“Eventually, we’re hoping we can save money,” he said.

William Stockmeyer, the lawyer working for RSU 12 in the negotiations, has written language for proposed legislation that could enable the agreement to move forward.

The legislation would address emergency repairs, without which the school unit as a whole is responsible for emergency repairs to buildings — even in the last months of a potential separation.

A new Wiscasset School Administrative Unit would be responsible for covering these costs to school buildings in town, and not emergency repairs in other RSU 12 towns, between the date of the withdrawal vote and the effective date of withdrawal — July 1, 2014.

Slack said that once the DOE signs off on the agreement, the town has 45 days to post a withdrawal referendum prior to a November vote.

¦ CURRENTLY, RSU 12 manages Wiscasset High School, Wiscasset Middle School and Wiscasset Primary School, in addition to other schools in the far-flung school unit. Wiscasset residents voted last summer to form a withdrawal committee in an attempt to form their own independent school unit.