Albion votes to explore leaving Fairfield-area school district

Voters on Friday voted by an 8-to-1 margin to start off having methods to withdraw from Maine Faculty Administrative District 49. The transfer comes as a final result of the district’s prepare to close 3 of its elementary colleges, such as Albion Elementary College, and consolidate them in a new faculty in Benton.  Michael G. Seamans/Early morning Sentinel file

ALBION — Residents on Friday voted overwhelmingly — by an 8-to-1 margin — to assistance commencing a process to depart Maine School Administrative District 49. The vote was 184-23.

This vote indicates the city will type a negotiating committee and start off the 22-step process outlined by the Division of Education and learning for withdrawal, but this does not always necessarily mean the city will truly withdraw from the district, which at this time features Albion, Benton, Clinton and Fairfield.

At any portion in the negotiating system the committee can make a decision it is not feasible for Albion to depart the district and end the system. Even if the committee negotiates an settlement with the district to withdraw, there will have to have to be yet another city assembly vote to give final approval.

In addition to forming the negotiating committee, the referendum authorizes the committee to commit up to $45,000 on the system, to be used to employ the service of support from experts like legal professionals and academic consultants.

The idea of withdrawing from the district arrived up when MSAD 49 began the approach of building a new college, and the board of administrators voted to consolidate Fairfield Most important School, Albion Elementary University and Clinton Elementary College — that means all those three faculties will close and college students would as an alternative travel to the new setting up in Benton.

This will indicate for a longer period bus rides for young college students, and residents have argued that the group really feel of the Albion Elementary Faculty cannot be replicated in a bigger setting up.

Organizers have also mentioned this will boost the tax stress on Albion citizens, since they will have to support spend for the new constructing, whilst generating their town much less attractive to people going to the region, as the educational institutions would be farther away. People have also expressed irritation about their tax bucks likely to assist Benton, as an alternative of keeping in Albion.

Even though there are no concrete specifics nonetheless about what it would seem like if the city remaining the district, it would very likely signify the town would set up its personal school district to operate Albion Elementary College for youthful learners. After students age out of the elementary university, families could pick out a nearby district to attend for the higher grades.

At a hearing on the withdrawal concern last month, inhabitants in attendance ended up mainly in help of the strategy to withdraw, and seemed eager for the negotiating committee to start out function and iron out what an Albion-only faculty method could appear like.

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