SALEM — The Maine School Administrative District 58 board of directors has approved a negotiation team to meet with town withdrawal committees as it considers the possible breakup of the district, potential school closures and next year’s budget.
Last month, a proposal to close Day Mountain Regional Middle School in Strong narrowly failed, falling short of the required two-thirds majority. The outcome prompted applause from many in the audience after administrators confirmed the weighted vote totals.
Underlying the reprieve for Day Mountain, which was reconfigured in 2022 as a middle school serving students in fifth through eighth grades, are the core challenges MSAD 58 has faced for years: declining enrollment across a district that spans 500 square miles.
Many comments and questions during the at-times emotional meeting focused on the need to let the towns’ withdrawal processes play out.
“Historically, when a district is looking to close a school, then the town looks at withdrawal,” Superintendent Laura Columbia said at the meeting. “And right now, we started closing schools, and then towns started (withdrawal processes). So we’re in a unique situation.”
Board members said they felt it was necessary to move forward with a plan to consolidate facilities because of the district’s costs to taxpayers. MSAD 58 voters rejected the first proposed budget earlier this year, before approving a reduced budget in August by fewer than 100 votes.
Over the past year, three of the district’s towns voted to withdraw: Strong, followed by Phillips in May and Kingfield in September. The district’s fourth town, Avon, opted against pursuing withdrawal in July.
This has left the district with a chaotic landscape to navigate as the board weighs school closings, infrastructure upgrades, new hires and next year’s budget.
“It’s hard to give an answer knowing that there’s so many different variables right now in the equation,” Columbia said in response to a question at the October meeting.
The three towns considering leaving MSAD 58 are on step 8 of the 22-step process outlined by the Maine Department of Education, meaning they have formed committees to negotiate a withdrawal agreement with the district.
At last week’s board meeting, Columbia said she and board Chair Jess Cain of Phillips had met with the district’s legal counsel. The lawyer from Drummond Woodsum advised that negotiating simultaneously with three towns — while also considering potential school closures — was likely to tax the district’s business office to the point where Columbia said MSAD 58 may need to hire part-time help.
“He definitely made it seem like it was a lot for one town to pull that information from, let alone three towns to pull that information from,” Cain said.
Added Columbia, “I don’t know if they deal with a lot of districts who are working with three towns potentially withdrawing.”
Responding to a question about how the ownership of buildings or other assets would be determined, Columbia said everything was negotiable.
“The lawyer literally said, ‘It’s a divorce,’” she said. “Money has been put by the towns into our district. So what’s fair for the towns to take if they want to withdraw? What’s fair for the district to keep, because they’ve also put money into it?”
The town committees are at different stages of readiness for negotiation. Strong, the furthest along, is drafting a plan that, if approved, could allow the town to leave the district as early as July 1, 2027. The town has asked MSAD 58 to schedule negotiations.
Kingfield’s committee had met once as of Thursday’s board meeting, according to board member Lilly Cheimis of Kingfield, and is now working with its consultant.
“They want this to be a thoughtful process,” Cheimis said. “That’s more important than being timely. So extensions are very possible.”
The Kingfield Withdrawal Committee is reviewing school configuration options and exploring potential cost savings — something Cheimis said initial findings have not yet identified. The committee does not yet have a plan in place.
The board voted to appoint four directors to the Strong and Kingfield negotiation committees: Brad Orbeton of Kingfield, Danielle Vachon of Phillips, Mary Lecours of Strong and Jessie Stinchfield of Strong. The appointees do not serve on their towns’ withdrawal committees.
Officials noted the process is still in its early stages, and additions or substitutions remain possible.
A negotiation committee for Phillips was not appointed.
“We’re not there yet,” Cain said, noting that her town is still working to secure a consultant.
If school closings and town withdrawals were not enough, administrators are preparing to develop the fiscal 2027 budget. Directors who addressed the issue said they anticipated a minimal increase, keeping the district in a holding pattern as it waits to see what comes next.
“So it feels that this budget is another sort of stop-gap with the assumption that we’re going to make the moves in hopefully the next three months,” board member Ashley Hopwood Farrar of Kingfield said.
Ideally, Cheimis said, the district could settle on a sustainable configuration and “prioritize staff and students over buildings and walls.”
“That’s the ultimate goal,” Orbeton said.
