HARTFORD – The last community workshop on the future of SAD 39 will be held at 6 p.m. tonight at the Hartford Town Hall.
Superintendent Rick Colpitts and board Chairwoman Colleen Bullecks are conducting the workshops, where attendees so far seem to favor keeping SAD 39 intact.
Buckfield hosted a workshop Monday and, on Wednesday, about 30 people attended one in Sumner. At each workshop, people were divided into small groups to generate questions on the six options for SAD 39. They are:
• Regionalization – The district currently partners with SAD 17 for adult and vocational education, diesel fuel and bus repairs. Other options to be considered are special education administration and purchasing supplies and materials.
• Disband – Each town would be required to provide for its own students in some way.
• Form or join a school union – Either one would require each town to have its own kindergarten through eighth-grade school.
There would be a separate union board to oversee the high school operations and union business.
• Join another district – Possibilities are SAD 17 in Oxford, 21 in Dixfield, 36 in Livermore Falls, 44 in Bethel and 52 in Turner.
• Charter school – Establish a charter school that would be exempt from many regulations public schools must meet. The Legislature is acting on a bill this year to allow charter schools.
• Special purpose school – Ask the Legislature to allow SAD 39 to become a special purpose or magnet school, like the Maine School for Science and Math in Limestone.
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