The overseers of the Sebago Education Alliance, a coalition of five public school districts that includes School Administrative District 6, Regional School Unit 14, Scarborough and the Gorham and Westbrook school systems, have voted to close the Alliance School, a special education program that has served K-12 students from across the region since 2007.

Citing rising tuition, rent and labor costs, the five district superintendents that run the alliance – an 11-year collaborative effort designed to pool resources and cut costs – voted unanimously in February to shutter the day treatment program. In a Feb. 11 letter, the superintendents announced that the program, which has been located at the Frank Jewett School in Buxton since 2011, would permanently close on June 30.

“Following a comprehensive financial review of revenue and expenditures by administration and all [alliance] superintendents, the continuation of funding to support this programming has been determined to be unsustainable,” the superintendents wrote. “The combination of rising costs, including tuition, leased space, resources and personnel, as compared to the lack of sustainable revenue, have led to the decision to close the Alliance School.”

According to Linda Powell, the Alliance School initially enrolled five students, and reached a peak of 44 students last year. This year, the school has 26 students. Students from 10 districts, including the five districts in the alliance, have enrolled in the school during the past eight years, according to Powell. The school, which has an annual budget of $2,079,747 this year, is run by a 25-person staff, all of whom will be laid off, Powell said.

According to the Feb. 11 letter, each district’s special education administrator will perform a placement review for Alliance School students before the end of this school year. Students may be placed in programs run by their respective school districts or placed in outside programs, such as private special education programs.

The day treatment program provides educational programming and therapy for students with extreme emotional and behavioral needs. The students are identified by a local team of parents and educators, who evaluate special-needs students in the district. Those children, Powell said, need psychological and behavioral assistance that is only available outside their district. The Alliance School’s goal is to transition the students back to their respective districts.

Before the Alliance School existed, students from the five districts were traveling more than two hours round trip daily, to classes in Gray, New Gloucester, Saco and Lewiston. High tuitions at private special education programs outside the member school districts created a financial burden – in some cases, reaching as much as $100,000 per student per year.

The Alliance School has offered classes much closer to home, and for much less money. This year, tuitions ranged from $35,600 to $40,482. According to Powell, the Alliance School has saved the five districts a total of $2,244,942.

“What we were trying to do is develop a high-level, cost-effective programming that had good outcomes for kids,” Powell said. “I think we did because many of our students over the years did transition back to the public schools.”

In need of a larger space, the program moved into the brick Frank Jewett Elementary School on Groveville Road in Buxton in September 2011, leaving behind the Little Falls School in Gorham. According to Marc Gousse, the superintendent of the Westbrook School Department and the chairman of the alliance, the move has added an additional $118,000 in annual operations costs.

“When we moved from Gorham to SAD 6 we incurred significant costs that we previously didn’t have,” Gousse said. “When it was in Gorham we were housed in a facility where we weren’t being charged for any space. When we moved to SAD 6 we incurred leased space costs in excess of $100,000.”

“Essentially, what we have is the cost of keeping the school open exceeds the revenue we would we gain,” Gousse said. “The tuition rates would have to be raised so high that it just doesn’t make any sense to keep that building open when we can do out-of-district placements more economically through existing programs.”

Although the school has succeeded in saving money in the long term, Gousse said, the program does not provide near-term costs savings at this point.

“In the end, the savings that were built up over time have been exceeded,” Gousse said. “The fund balance no longer exists to the point where it can be sustainable.

“The program’s very successful and we’ve had great support from our special ed directors,” Gousse added. “This was not at all taken lightly. We looked at every possibility before we made the decision to close the school.”

SAD 6 Superintendent Frank Sherburne did not respond to calls seeking comment, while RSU 14 Superintendent Sandy Prince declined to comment on the closure of the school in any detail, referring questions to Gousse. According to Gousse, RSU 14 is the “fiscal agent” of the Sebago Alliance. Gousse declined to comment in detail on the financial calculations that led to the decision, referring questions to RSU 14 Assistant Superintendent Donn Davis, who is out of the office this month.

According to Gousse, the alliance will continue to operate, with the districts sharing software and license technology, collaborating on professional development programs and curriculum development.

Powell, a co-founder of the Alliance School who became director this year, said she was disappointed that the day treatment program had become “cost-prohibitive.”

“I am incredibly saddened by it,” Powell said. “I am saddened for the students and for the staff. I think this year we have put some pretty remarkable procedures and processes and programs in place but, unfortunately, financially it was too little too late.”