BELFAST – While the Regional School Unit 20 board of directors was meeting in Stockton Springs, Oct . 4, to discuss options for an elementary school with plummetting enrollment, a committee in Belfast was fine-tuning a plan for the city to withdraw from the district, along with the five other towns that comprised the former School Administrative District 34. 

That the group was later joined by two RSU 20 board members, who also serve on their town's withdrawal committees, hints at some of the entanglements in a process many have likened to a "divorce."

Voters in Belfast, Belmont, Morrill, Northport, Searsmont and Swanville have each approved measures to petition the state for withdrawal from RSU 20, which formed from the combination of School Administrative Districts 34 and 56 as part of a statewide consolidation effort in 2008.

Most of the former SAD 34 towns approved the withdrawal question in June. Swanville took up the question a second time on Oct. 2 reaffirming an earlier vote that was thrown out by the state for incorrect ballot language, and Belmont — recently notified that its results were invalid — has scheduled a revote on Nov. 6.

If the withdrawal effort is successful, Eric Sanders, of the Belfast withdrawal committee, said the new district would be a lot like the old one, including the cost, which the committee estimated would be roughly the same it had been in SAD 34 and not much different than taxpayers were used to under RSU 20.

The news didn't surprise Northport withdrawal committee member and selectman Paul Rooney, who said his group had no illusions about saving money. But Mark Sheldon, a former selectman and withdrawal committee member from Morrill, called cost savings a "major selling point" in his town.

Speaking later, both Rooney and Sheldon said their towns had no other option but to follow Belfast. Rooney said Northport had held informal talks with Lincolnville but were told the town's Central School would not be able to accomodate additional students. Sheldon said Morrill had no clear option but to work with Belfast.

Randy Place, a selectman from Morrill was more optimistic, saying that in an SAD 34 model, schools would be more likely to stay open because the district would not be supporting underpopulated schools like those in Searsport and Stockton Springs. Morrill, along with Belmont and Searsmont, will likely have to wait 10 to 12 years for state funding to build a new tri-town K-5 school to replace the aging Ames and Weymouth schools, he said, but that would be the case regardless of the withdrawal.

The figures presented by the Belfast committee on Thursday were itemized in what was described as a very rough estimate of what it would cost to run a new district in the model of the former SAD 34.

Much of the withdrawal procedure will follow a preset legal track based on state statutes, but who gets the buildings, buses, photocopiers and other assets of the district will be subject to negotiations between the withdrawing towns and the RSU. These have yet to take place, but Sanders said the finances would break down relatively cleanly along pre-consolidation lines. The main reasons? Very little changed after the consolidation. Even a teacher contract that was meant to correct disparities between former 34 and 56 salaries has yet to be finalized.

The one major element that truly merged in the consolidation was the position of superintendent and the administration of the central office.

With that in mind, the Belfast committee presented two scenarios. Under one option, the districts would share a superintendent and business services for one year after the withdrawal. This approach would save roughly $157,000, the committee estimated. It would also honor new superintendent Brian Carpenter's two-year contract and allow for a more gradual transition. The second option would be to completely separate the districts at the outset, which would require hiring a new superintendent, and setting up other administration in short order. The transition of the school board was also discussed, and several options were pitched including the creation of an interim board.

In the breakdown of expenses, the committee assumed that the costs of operating schools, including teacher salaries, would stay with the distict they served, breaking down along the old SAD 34 and 56 lines.

According to Bruce Mailloux, former superintendent of both RSU 20 and SAD 34 and advisor to the Belfast committee, quotes for expenses related to technology, maintenance services, educational programs, transportation and a board of directors, among other itemized costs, were conservative estimates based on the proportions of those services used in each school.

The cost of food service was taken from preconsolidation SAD 34 figures, he said.

Sanders noted that the transfer of school buildings and other assets in the 2008 consolidation was made for token consideration of $1 and said, as an ethical point, the reverse should be true.

Belfast attorney Kristin Collins volunteered to present the general provisions of the withdrawal plan to the RSU 20 board Oct.9. The committee would then meet the following night to finalize the plan, taking any new information into consideration, and submit it to the board.

The somewhat backward timeline was described as necessary to meet deadlines that would allow a newly formed, or reformed, district to be open by fall 2013.

The draft plan, as presented Thursday, includes a contingency that voids the agreement if not enough other towns withdraw. As written by the committee, the withdrawal would need to be approved by municipalities representing 85-percent of students in the six towns. The figure was meant to be high enough to that Belfast wasn't left alone but able to move forward if one town didn't make the deadlines. Collins suggested maybe the number could be lower given the low voter turnout in some of the special withdrawal referendums held outside of Belfast.

"You could have a turnout of 40 people," she said. "Anything could happen."

Despite the contingency, Sanders said there was no desire to leave any former SAD 34 towns out. He also confirmed that although Belmont's revote happens after the submission deadline, a provision would allow the town to be included in the withdrawal and subsequent reformation.

Penobscot Bay Pilot reporter Ethan Andrews can be reached at ethanandrews@penbaypilot.com