UNITY - Talk of potential school closures and privatizing bus runs drew more than 100 people to Unity Elementary School Monday night for a meeting of the Regional School Unit 3 board of directors.

Both issues were being considered by officials of the 11-town Western Waldo County school district for potential cost savings.

RSU 3 has seen a steady decline in state general purpose aid over enough years that administrators have run out of obvious places to save money. Superintendent Heather Perry said the board has cut roughly $4.5 million from its the budget since 2008-09, but this still hasn’t been enough to offset the loss of revenue from Augusta. As a result, residents have seen tax increases alongside the cuts.

Perry presented a breakdown of the costs and benefits of closing one of two schools judged by district officials to have the least negative impact on students — Monroe Elementary and Morse Memorial Elementary in Brooks.

The board deemed the savings — estimated at roughly $250,000 in each case — not significant enough to consider, and in a nearly unanimous vote opted not to pursue the school closures.

A majority of the crowd stuck around for discussion of the district’s exploration of the idea of contracting school bus transportation to a third party operator.

Perry described the details of a request for proposals issued by the district. The district received three responses, she said, of which only one, from Massachusetts-based Durham School Services showed potential savings — up to $130,000 after a transitional year. 

“And that’s assuming their price structure doesn’t increase over time, and we know it always does,” said Perry.

Dissent was strong from students, parents and bus drivers who addressed the board. Many spoke glowingly of the RSU 3 transportation staff and the value of knowing the bus drivers and transportation director.

The board listened to testimony from a number of citizens, though comments from members before and after the unanimous vote against privatizing bus services suggested it was an easy decision.

“For me it was never a viable option,” said Brooks director Frank Champa, who added that he felt it was important for the board explore it and see actual numbers.

Chairman Phil Shibles of Knox, the lone dissenter on the school closing vote, and Waldo director Ryan Harden each urged attendants to come to future budget meetings to make sure these issues were not reopened, particularly at the public budget meeting when the board’s recommended budget is subject to amendment.

“Money has to come from somewhere,” said Harnden. “But not here.”

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com