POLAND — The RSU 16 School Committee Monday postponed consideration of whether to review the local cost-sharing agreement that determines how the district’s costs are divided among its three member towns until September.

 

Mechanic Falls town councilors had requested a review in response to significant fluctuations in how increases in the school budget have affected taxes in the three member towns as a result of the budget that passed in May.

 

The estimated effect of the budget on taxes for a property valued at $100,000 differed in the three towns as follows:

 

The owner of a $100,000 property in Mechanic Falls is expected to see a $86.36 increase, while in Minot the increase on a similar property is expected to increase $56.48, and in Poland it is an estimated $6.20 more.

 

The Mechanic Falls Council wanted a review of the current cost sharing formula which is based 10 percent on student population and 90 percent property valuation.

 

School Superintendent Michael Wilhelm noted that other factors, such as the mill rate that state officials decide a town should spend in support of education, play significant roles in what individual towns within a district wind up paying and suggested that it might be a good idea to bring local legislative representatives in on the discussion.

 

“What happens in Augusta affects (the rate each town is charged) more than what goes on here,” Wilhelm said.

 

School Committee Chairman Mary Ella Jones said that the current local cost-sharing agreement is scheduled to continue at the 90/10 split for another two years. Other committee members noted that any change in that agreement would have to be made by a vote of residents of member towns and was not something the School Committee could alter unilaterally.

 

In other business, the School Committee awarded the bid to replace the roof over three sections of the Minot Consolidated School to Maida Construction of Minot at a bid price of $55,640; awarded the bid to replace the Elm Street School’s 1982 phone system to Five Star Communication/Phoneworks of Maine at a bid of $21,217; and awarded the bid to replace the Elm Street School’s 1982 fire alarm panel to Great Falls Security Systems for $4,334.

 

The Committee also approved the first reading of a policy that sets new requirements for valedictorian/salutatorian eligibility.

 

Poland Regional High School Principal Cari Medd said that students were the driving force behind the changes, which included provisions that insure that the school’s most highly honored scholars have excelled while taking the curriculum’s most challenging offerings and required that they be good citizens as evidenced by having been inducted into the National Honor Society.

 

The new policy, once officially adopted, will become effective for graduates of the class of 2016.

 

Jason Thornton was hired as special education teacher at the high school and Julie Purdy was hired as school librarian at the high school.

 

The committee agreed to allow the Poland Recreation Program to erect a proper scoreboard at the lower field for use by the grades five to eight football team. The field, and scoreboard, will also be used by the high school field hockey team.