Wiscasset residents face a possible November ballot vote on closing a school, and that school could be Wiscasset Middle School.  Both of those developments come in a new memo from Interim Superintendent of Schools Lyford Beverage and a letter to the editor from School Committee Chairman Steve Smith.

Smith released his letter and Lyford’s memo on August 17. In a telephone interview August 18, the chairman said he hopes both items will get the public to turn out at Wiscasset High School for the committee’s next meeting, at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28.

Plans call for a September committee vote to close a school, followed by the November referendum, he said.

Smith did not predict the referendum’s outcome.

“I don’t know. I think everybody understands we can’t have three school buildings. I don’t know how attached people are to the (middle school). It’s whether they’re willing to make the sacrifice,” he said.

He also was not sure how residents would react to having to make the decision as soon as November 4. Having the vote then would let the committee start looking ahead to the second year’s budget, and would help ensure the town meets the state’s timeline for the steps in closing a school, he said.

Smith’s letter states that the committee is leaning toward closing Wiscasset Middle; grades 5 and 6 would move to Wiscasset Primary School and grades 7 and 8 to Wiscasset High, the letter continues.

Smith’s letter and Lyford’s memo represent the first, formal floating of the same scenario that the committee has discussed off and on for months. The committee started meeting in January, two months after voters agreed to pull out of Regional School Unit 12. The pullout took effect in July.

“As was evident in the development of the (first year’s) budget ... funding and taxation will be a huge issue,” Lyford writes. “The town of Wiscasset has voted to become an independent school system; now the (school committee) must find the most efficient, cost-effective, and streamlined design for the physical plant to accommodate the community’s goals.

“The Wiscasset School Committee is well aware of the added burden to the local taxpayers and is committed to exhausting all avenues to reduce the ongoing costs of schools,” the memo states.

Shrunken student counts have partly emptied the three schools, and local birth figures point toward the downward trend continuing, according to Lyford’s memo. It also acknowledges that the prospect of closing a school is not a new one for the town.

“For several years controversy has swirled around the opinions of which of the two buildings serving grades K-8 will best accommodate change ... but virtually everyone agrees that the school committee should not keep three buildings in operation when only two are needed. And since closing a school is a community decision requiring a formal town vote, the Wiscasset School Committee will enter into a formal dialogue involving the community in order to make a wise and satisfactory recommendation,” the memo states.

According to Lyford and Smith, closing the middle school would impact students and teachers less, and cost less, than other options for consolidation such as sending all the primary school’s grades to the middle school.

At the primary school, fifth and sixth graders would be in a different part of the building from the lower grades, Lyford writes.

“(Younger students) can continue to enjoy a setting where they enjoy the safety and comfort of an early childhood environment. The School Committee is very aware of the need for reasonable distribution of age spans within the school so that younger students and older students in the same facility can be treated in an age-appropriate manner.”

In addition to encouraging residents to attend upcoming meetings, including the one on August 28, Smith and Beverage said anyone with questions or concerns may also contact them. Smith can be reached at 207-882-6450, 207-208-9712 or by email at  ssmith@wiscassetchools.org; Beverage can be reached at 207-882-4104 or by email at  lbeverage@wiscassetschools.org.