We voters of West Bath have an important decision to make. Together on Tuesday Jan. 13, we will go to the polls to decide once and for all whether we remain a part of RSU 1 or will we operate independently as a standalone school district. We have an incredibly high threshold requirement for a voter turn out of 560.

The West Bath Board of Selectmen are unanimous in support of withdrawal. We now have before us a withdrawal agreement that spells out the plan for the future of West Bath School, its students, teachers and staff, it’s longevity, and to remain a part of our community. The selectmen have carefully weighed the plusses and minuses and agree that it is indeed more advantageous for us to become an independent district than to remain a part of the larger RSU 1. Control over costs, curriculum, and policy far outweigh any benefit received by remaining. We urge you to please consider a “yes” vote.

To join RSU 1, in 2008, we had to make certain sacrifices, for the good of the whole RSU 1 Community of course, but were assured certain off-setting benefits if we would go along.

We gave up: School Choice. West Bath Students could attend anywhere they chose, really. We gave up control of the school. RSU 1 administration took over. We gave up curriculum control. Again, RSU 1 runs it. We gave up control of how money is spent, the budget process and our voice taxes raised. We also accepted responsibility for a ton of Bath debt — about $ 10 million to the entire district. We gave up our school board and superintendent. We even gave up the school itself.

With the withdrawal agreement, we were able to recover and restore everything that we had to give-up in 2008, and then some. The withdrawal agreement provides for:

West Bath students can continue to attend RSU 1 schools by tuition agreement of $ 7,988 per pupil to Bath Middle School and $ 8,558 per pupil to Morse High. We currently pay RSU 1 $ 12,322 per pupil to attend RSU 1 schools as a member. Bath pays only $ 7,774 per pupil.

RSU 1 School Choice students can continue attending West Bath School with a reciprocal tuition agreement which allows them to attend West Bath at no cost and RSU 1 will credit a like number of West Bath students in exchange.

West Bath will operate our own independent stand alone school district. We will have our own school board, superintendent, control over curriculum decisions and policy, decide our own budget and will return to the Town Meeting style of operation.

We have negotiated an agreement which releases us from responsibility from the huge debt from City of Bath, and we are no longer required to help bail out the City of Bath and the outstanding debt that they brought to RSU 1.

The key point is that we have been able to restore all those things that the public holds dear, those same things that we had to forgo in order to join RSU 1; things that we took for granted. But we have been able to get them back again, plus some more. It sits before us and all we need to do is to vote to accept. If we do not vote to withdraw, all of these items above will go away once again and we will return to business as usual as a member of RSU 1.

Vote Tuesday, Jan. 13, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the West Bath Fire Station.

Peter Oceretko
Selectman, Town of West
Bath
Co-chairperson, West
Bath/RSU 1 Withdrawal
Committee