Thornton Academy Headmaster Carl Stasio declined Regional School Unit 21’s offer to accept Arundel middle school students while it honors the financial obligations of the district’s contract with Thornton Academy.
The contract states that RSU 21, which encompasses Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel, will pay tuition for all Arundel middle school students to attend Thornton Academy Middle School. Last year’s arbitration between Thornton Academy and RSU 21 solidified the contract’s language. The ruling prohibited the district from enrolling additional Arundel middle school students at Middle School of the Kennebunks unless the contract is terminated.
Arundel middle school students have been allowed to attend Middle School of the Kennebunks if their families pay the district approximately $8,000, the cost for tuition set by the Maine Department of Education.
Arundel parents at an Aug. 15 school board meeting asked the board to make the official request on their behalf.
The district wrote to Thornton Academy’s Board of Trustees Aug. 17 and asked them to consider allowing up to 15 Arundel students in each of grades six, seven and eight to attend Middle School of the Kennebunks at no cost to the parents or guardians.
And of course he would! An entire district voted to keep the contract.
ReplyDeleteNot true, anonymous.
ReplyDelete1. The entire district did not show up to vote. (In fact, less than 30% showed up to vote)
2. The voters that did show up did not vote 'no' unanimously on the contract buyout; there were voters who supported the measure.
At the very least, when making a statement, try to keep it factual.
Wow, super negative, and flamable.
ReplyDeleteFlamable again? What does that mean? Maybe some readers would be better served reading other blogs where people with different opinions are not allowed to post.
ReplyDeleteI think what everyone means is inflammable... flammable would be casing a heat problem on the blog....just saying...
ReplyDeletewhoops I meant inflammatory...see even all the negativity is getting to me!
ReplyDeleteWhat is inflammatory about correcting someone's statement?
ReplyDeleteThe entire district did not vote unanimously not to buy out the contract; there were many people in support of it, and they voted accordingly.
It is a misstatement to say otherwise.
The entire district did not show up to vote. Less than 30% of taxpayers in Arundel alone showed up. One cannot factually say that the entire district voted, based on this one fact alone.
It is a misstatement to say otherwise.
Saying something inflammatory would be making a comment that is untruthful, bigoted, hateful or racist, in order to tick people off.
If you're ticked off that I corrected that poster's misinformation, so be it. It was not, by definition of the word, inflammatory:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inflammatory
People need to move on. This is silly! No, means no. I can't wait to see how you behave when Arundel withdraws from RSU 21. Are we gonna see ads in every newspaper?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely; especially if you think that Arundel is going to be financially self-sufficient. You can kiss any idea of 'going it alone' goodbye, because as another poster stated, Arundel cannot keep up with the RSU.
ReplyDeleteJust wait - the money you think will be saved by not being part of the RSU is going to be a drop in the bucket compared to what it's going to cost to keep our town and MLD running.
I was told my taxes would go up if we voted 'yes' to buy out the ocntract. I was told my taxes would go up if we voted 'yes' on the cost-sharing formula. I was told if we put that money that was to be spent on the contract toward our tax bills, we'd save a significant amount of money. The vote was 'no', and look what happened.
We blew $1.2M in one fell swoop, and my tax bill went up. There was no school choice, and it's going to continue to cost $1M a year to send kids to TAMS for the next five years.
If we withdraw from the RSU, that $1M a year isn't going to come from Kennebunk/port, so where do you think it *is* going to come from?
Open up your wallet. Got $1M? I know I don't.
I'd rather go it alone, than to go with with a district that breaches contracts.
ReplyDeleteMake sure you provide us all with your address; we'll need somewhere to send those tax bills when they skyrocket. I'm sure since you're okay with going it alone that you'll be okay with taking on the tax burden of those who didn't want a tax increase, and those who soon won't be able to afford it (on top of those who already can't).
ReplyDelete