UNITY - Students from Palermo could attend high school in Regional School Unit 3 in the future, provided the town successfully withdraws from its current school district, RSU 12.

On Feb. 10, the The RSU 3 board of directors, conditionally approved a 10-year contract with the Town of Palermo School Department that would make Mount View High School the town’s official “school of record.” The board favored the agreement by a vote of 8-2.

Palermo residents voted last December to pursue withdrawal from the district that includes Alna, Chelsea, Somerville, Westport Island, Wiscasset, Whitefield and Windsor. Wiscasset officially withdrew from RSU 12 in December but the separation does not take effect until July 1. Westport Island and Windsor have also approved initial withdrawal measures.

RSU 3 Superintendent Heather Perry said the board was approached by the Palermo withdrawal committee in December. By law, petitions for withdrawal require the town to establish a ‘school of record.’

If the withdrawal goes through, Perry said the addition of Palermo high school students won’t have any effect on taxpayers in RSU 3 towns. Under the agreement approved on Monday, Palermo would pay RSU 3 a per-pupil tuition set by the state. Additional costs related to special programs and services could be charged to the town, Perry said.

“The outcome is, we’ve created an agreement where the students of Palermo can attend Mount View and RSU 3 taxpayers will be safe,” she said. “They won’t have to pay more.”

Perry said the majority of Palermo high school students go to Erskine Academy. “For the smaller number that choose Mount View, we can absorb that number,” she said, adding that the unlikely exception would be if a large proportion of those students used the same resources.

The timeline for all of this remains to be seen. Palermo officials have not yet finalized a withdrawal agreement for submission to the state Department of Education or set a date for a final referendum, at which voters could approve or reject the idea.

In other business, the RSU 3 board:

• Renewed contracts with the Adult Education Director, Technology Director, Principal of Mount View Elementary School and the Assistant Superintendent.

• Continued work on policies relating to the district’s gradual switch to a proficiency-based system. A special board meeting on proficiency-based education will be held on Feb. 24, at 6 p.m. at the Mount View Complex, Room M111. Perry said several major policies are due to be discussed at upcoming meetings, including “promotion and retention of students” and “graduation requirements.”

The finance committee has started working on the 2014-15 budget. Perry said she expects to have figures for state General Purpose Aid in roughly a week. The committee has another three meetings planned before the budget comes before the school board for consideration. “We’ve got a ways to go,” Perry said.

The next regular board meeting will be held on March 10 at 7 p.m. at the Mount View Complex, Room M111.

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com