POLAND — Regional School Unit 16 directors voted Monday night to reevaluate and possibly amend the cost-sharing formula for part of future budgets for Mechanic Falls, Minot and Poland.

On a motion made by Poland representative Emily Rinchich, directors decided by a weighted vote of 533-378 to initiate the process.

The weighted vote is based on each town’s population. Each director from Mechanic Falls counts as 57 votes, each Minot director counts as 50 votes and each Poland director counts as 94 votes.

There are 15 directors.

Poland representatives Rinchich, Melanie Harvey, Randy Lautz and Christina DeSantis were joined by Minot representatives Angela Swanson and Mike Downing and Mechanic Falls representative Steve Turner in voting in favor to evaluate, totaling 533 votes.

Mechanic Falls representatives Chairwoman Mary Martin, Vice Chairman Patrick Irish, Jessica Smith and Andrea Winn, and Minot representatives Sarah Robinson, Elizabeth Martin and Stephen Holbrook voted against, totaling 378 votes.

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Joe Parent, the fifth Poland representative, was absent.

If the directors had not taken any action, a written petition with the names of at least 575 residents from the three towns would have been required to initiate the review. This stipulation is based on needing 10% of the total vote count in the three towns in the last gubernatorial election.

Superintendent Amy Hediger had recommended the reevaluation be initiated by the directors instead of townspeople needing to go the petition route.

The multistep procedure is outlined in the RSU 16 organization plan that was implemented in 2009.

A nine-member committee has to be established with two members and one school director from each town.

The committee will require the services of a facilitator from a list maintained by the state education commissioner. The facilitator will work with the committee to gather information on the current cost-sharing method, which may include “the elements involved in the calculation of each municipality’s costs and a graphic description of the current and historic distribution of costs in the region.”

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The committee will also consider the concerns of municipal officials, educators and the public about the current cost-sharing reasoning.

The committee will develop a plan of action if changes are to be made to the sharing formula.

Any change has to be approved by a majority of the nine committee members.

If a change is approved, it has to go to voters of the three towns for final approval.

All costs associated with the reevaluation are the responsibility of RSU 16.

The idea to review the cost-sharing formula was championed by the Poland selectpersons who felt their town was paying more than its fair share of the school budget.

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The current cost-share formula in RSU 16 has been in effect since 2010.

The third proposed schools budget for fiscal year 2024-2025 of $28.4 million was preliminary approved by a district budget vote last Thursday.

Of the total budget, $4.6 million is additional locally raised revenue above the state’s subsidy.

It is the only amount that RSU 16 would use the cost-sharing formula on.

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