LEWISTON – The School Committee voted unanimously Monday night to select Alicia Rea to represent Lewiston on the Great Falls Regional Service Center Board of Directors.
Alicia Rea
Rea, who serves as the Lewiston City Council representative on the school committee, will replace Tina Hutchinson, who resigned from the committee April 22.
The Great Falls Regional Service Center, which also features Auburn, Turner and Poland, is part of a statewide effort to get public school districts to find ways to save money by working together and being more efficient.
As mandated in a state law passed in 2017, public schools must join a regional service center or forego certain state money for education.
During Monday evening’s meeting, the school committee discussed whether to remain in the regional service center or opt out of it.
Bobbi Avery, the chief administrative officer of the district, said if the school committee decided against participating in the service center, it would not receive state subsidy for education.
“This year, we got $192,576, which is significantly more than we got the previous year,” Avery said.
She added that while Lewiston and Auburn have worked together this year to share a few services, such as “filing a joint milk bid” and sharing weather services, “it feels like we’ve done the bare minimum to continue getting the subsidy.”
Chairman Mark Cayer agreed, adding he feels the service center is “missing an opportunity to truly save the people in this area some money by looking at the hard things.”
“I hope that, as a group, we can start targeting some big-ticket items,” Cayer said.
The school committee also voted Monday evening to:
• Approve a field trip request from Lewiston High School to travel to New York City on April 2, 2020.
• Approve the nomination of Monique Roy to the Delegate Assembly of the Maine School Boards Association Conference.
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