WEST BATH

Final approval has been given by the state for the withdrawal agreement negotiated between West Bath and Regional School Unit 1, which now includes a grandfathering provision for school choice students.

A public hearing, the second of two required by withdrawal statute, will take place at 6 p.m. on Dec. 18 at West Bath School. The withdrawal referendum election will take place on Jan. 13, which will decide finally if West Bath with remain in the RSU or form a standalone district.

The initial withdrawal agreement was finalized on Sept. 29, but public criticism arose over the terms of the agreement, which required school choice students — students enrolled in a school outside the municipality of their residence — to discontinue attendance at the West Bath Elementary School in the event of a withdrawal.

Next year, school officials estimate that there will be approximately 32 school choice students at West Bath School. This number would decrease year after year as grandfathered students matriculate to Bath Middle School.

While the West Bath Withdrawal Committee pushed for the RSU to tuition in school choice students to West Bath, the RSU 1 Work Group determined that the cost of tuitioning in those students was too great and wouldcausea3percent increase in the RSU’s budget.

“The (school) choice kids from RSU 1 will continue to go to West Bath School,” said West Bath selectman and Withdrawal Committee member Peter Oceretko of the student agreement. “West Bath will waive the tuition amount for them and in exchange RSU 1 will accept 32 of West Bath’s students and not charge tuition for them.”

According to the Withdrawal Agreement, RSU 1 had agreed to have Bath Middle School and Morse High School serve as the schools of guaranteed acceptance for all West Bath middle and high school students for a period of 10 years following withdrawal.

West Bath agreed to pay tuition for the actual number of West Bath students in grades 6 to 12 who are attending RSU 1 schools, or for 75 percent of the total number of West Bath students in those grades attending public schools, whichever is greater.

The waived tuition associated with the school choice students would not be included in the 75 percent if fewer than 75 percent of West Bath’s secondary students continued attendance in RSU 1, said Oceretko.

“The children that we send will be above and beyond that 75 percent floor,” he said. “So in the first year we’d be promising to send about 90 percent of our children.”

The agreement is “beneficial to both sides,” said Oceretko, and added that it has received support from parents of West Bath students.

“We thought long and hard about coming up with some sort of a solution to address this,” said Oceretko. “Ultimately it’s the kids’ educational experience that’s at stake here.

“West Bath parents are in support of continuing (to allow) RSU 1 kids to attend,” he said. “They’re looking at the school as a community and they consider these RSU 1 kids, wherever they happen to come from, as part of that community.”