STRATTON -– Nearly 80 residents and some non-residents attended a selectmen’s meeting last Tuesday at the Stratton Community Building. The selectmen had asked MSAD #58 Superintendent Quenten Clark to attend the meeting to discuss the status of future district funding. This came after a series of school board meetings when it was reported that the district will face state subsidy shortfalls this year and years ahead. Clark and the school board members decided it was time to start publicly discussing how they’ll need to make changes in the way they educate their students.

One suggestion among many ways to cut costs is to combine some middle schools. The mention of sending Stratton middle school students to Kingfield triggered the invitation for Clark to attend the meeting. School board chairman Mike Pond was also present that evening.

“We’re facing a situation where we have half the number of students than we did 15 years ago. We can’t keep doing business as usual –-we have to find a solution,” Clark said after the meeting.

The projected $78 million in cuts to education across the state this year will affect this year’s local school budget. Clark noted this was only the beginning of his district receiving less state subsidy in future years.

Clark noted that there’s a surge in valuation which affects the funding formula under the state used Essential Programs and Services formula. There’s also a serious decline in enrollment also affecting the formula.

If we don’t face this issue proactively it will force decisions that we’ll regret and that were not well thought out, Clark explained. “The whole nature of our population has changed,” he said.

Attendees that evening listened to Clark explain the situation and financial forecast for the future.

“The meeting went very well,” said selectman chairman Jay Wyman. “There were enough people there who had lots of concern over the issue.” The intent, Wyman said, was to form a committee and see if they can’t get 12 to 15 people together to look at all of the issues. The group is going to investigate the best cost savings measures for the district as well as many other potential options for Stratton.

Wyman said that interested members can come to the next selectmen’s meeting which is always open to the public. At that time a signup process may occur for those who want to serve on this committee. “They’ll try to sit down and come up with reasonable solutions to save money and keep our school here,” Wyman said after the meeting. “We’re already combining classes.”

“Let’s face it; if you close a school in any town you’ll become a retirement community because parents with young children are going to move closer to their schools.”

Wyman explained that the towns will be faced with some tough decisions ahead. “I don’t blame parents who have young kids and have serious concerns,” he said.

“However we do have a lot of people with fixed incomes (who) can not afford additional taxes.”

We have to find if any plan is worth the extra money and if not we’ll have to look at the value and setbacks of consolidating kids, Wyman explained.

Typically, sports came up that evening as a means of cuts and transitioning into intramural type activities was one idea. “I believe we can come up with some reasonable programs and find cost savings measures,” Wyman added.

He also said that sending high school students to the Strong school for a high school experience is another consideration. “We can still have a high school and close the white elephant,” Wyman said. He said that it was discussed that nearly $20 million may be needed in repair and to bring the Mt. Abram High School building into compliance in years ahead.

“The meeting went very well in Stratton,” Clark said after the meeting. “As always they were calm, understanding of the problem and they want to resolve the issues.”

Selectman John Caldwell said he too thought the meeting was excellent. “I’m never in favor of raising taxes. In fact I always look at ways to cut taxes,” Caldwell explained.

Caldwell said the new committee once formed would look at all options including trying to break away from the district.

If Stratton broke away from the district, the committee might look into sending high school students to Mt. Abram by tuition, Rangeley if allowed or educating their own in Stratton, as a few examples of alternatives the town could consider.

“I would rather raise taxes than send our kids to Rangeley on a bad and longer road,” Caldwell said.

Wyman said that Clark explained that evening that the state would not allow them to break away.

“As far as I’m concerned this never should have happened in the first place,” Caldwell said of the formation of MSAD #58 way back when. “In 1994 I wanted to get out of it, but nobody else wanted to. They said we couldn’t afford it.”

Wyman spoke of the debt service as a financial drawback to breaking away. “This is a real problem. You just look at what they are doing with their own state employees in terms of furloughs,” Wyman said.

The issue will continue at the next selectmen’s meeting on Jan. 19 at 7 p.m. Members of the public are encouraged to attend, Wyman and Caldwell both said.

Clark was also expected to attend the Kingfield selectmen’s meeting last Monday. The option of moving K-5 students away from Kingfield had been discussed in the past.