RUMFORD – The SAD 43 board on Tuesday narrowly voted to place a nonbinding question on the June 14 ballot asking district residents whether they want to maintain Virginia Elementary School as an elementary school.
Voting to place the question on the ballot were Rumford representatives Chris Dickson, Tracey Higley, Diane Paterson and Linda Westleigh and Mexico member Peter Zanoni. Voting against were Rumford representatives Frank DiConzo and David McKivergan; Mexico members Frances DeFilipp and Betty Barrett; Byron board member Anne Simmons-Edmunds; and Roxbury representative Mark Touchette. Absent was Mike Papsadora.
The weighted vote was 452-380.
The board voted in January to end the 50-year-old school as an elementary school and send its 110 pupils to Meroby or Rumford elementary schools. The Virginia school would be used to educate special needs students. Until this year when they were sent to Meroby, those youngsters had previously been sent to special schools in Wilton or Lewiston.
The vote was taken after the board entered into a 30-minute closed session with the district’s lawyer, Dan Rose, to discuss the legality of the petition presented earlier in the month asking for the referendum question and after a 60-minute discussion.
Rose said his opinion was that the petition could not be binding because the board has the right to decide where children may be educated in a district. If the district had decided to close the school, then a petition to keep a school open could be decided by a binding public vote.
Superintendent Jim Hodgkin said he welcomed a public vote because it could settle the matter finally.
“This is an issue that has been discussed for a lot of years. To continue is not healthy for the students, parents or the community,” he said.
Several efforts over the years have been made to close Virginia school because of a dwindling student population.
Parents of Virginia school students have argued that a small, neighborhood school provides a solid, caring education for youngsters.
Although no particular percentage of voters must vote to keep Virginia school as an elementary school, board Chairwoman Westleigh said allowing the nonbinding vote provides a way to get additional information from residents.
“If the voters tell us yes, that will tell us to rethink what took place (in January),” she said.
The question asks voters whether they want Virginia school to stay open as an elementary school at an estimated cost of $150,000 a year.
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