Superintendent Update on Building Project
On April 10, 2019, the Maine State Board of Education unanimous approved our "Concept Design". By law, the State Board of Education approval sets a timeline of six months to obtain a favorable referendum vote for the building project. The referendum will take place on Tuesday, June 11, at your local voting stations. The overall (district-wide) ballot count will decide whether we are able to move forward with the building process or not.
Please know that we will continue to try and keep you informed of the project. A project brochure will be mailed to residents in our communities in the near future. This brochure will, hopefully, answer any of the questions that you may have and present some of our plans for the building and property. In addition, we will hold a public meeting on May 22, starting at 6:30 p.m. at Sumner Memorial High School. This presentation will be very similar to our last public meeting presentation but will not include a vote.
The document used as part of the Public Meeting and Straw Poll on March 20, 2019, which explained the budget (tax) implications, was inaccurate due to an error in the formula calculation. The corrected amounts are much more favorable and you will see a dramatic decrease in the tax burden from what was presented at the meeting. Please take a moment to review the (revised) document linked below and let us know if you have any questions.
At its monthly meeting yesterday in Fairfield, the Maine State Board of Education approved the "Site Application" for the new Sumner Memorial High School new building project. The Board unanimously voted to approve the current Sumner location as the site for our new grades 6-12 facility. This is a major milestone and puts on the next track of our journey, the Concept Design. Although we have completed a substantial amount of work toward our Concept Design, there is still work to be done.
