Voters in Buckfield, Hartford, and Sumner authorized expenditures of up to $50,000 per municipality to support the withdrawal process, for a combined authorization of up to $150,000.
To date, funds have been used for legal counsel, an education consultant, and one printing and mailing of postcards providing residents with the dates and locations of the public hearings and a link to information compiled by the committee.
Committee funds have not been used to produce campaign materials advocating either for or against withdrawal.
As of the most recent accounting, total expenditures are less than $40,000 of the $150,000 authorized.
A withdrawal committee can develop estimates, proposed staffing plans, and an anticipated first-year budget, but it cannot make binding guarantees about future school budgets, exact staffing levels, or specific educational programming.
Under Maine law, the withdrawal committee is responsible for preparing the withdrawal agreement, subject to approval by the Commissioner of Education. The agreement must address matters such as educational services, transportation, assets and liabilities, records, transition of administration and governance, child nutrition, and an anticipated first-year operating budget.
There are several reasons future costs and operations cannot be guaranteed:
Future governance will be handled by an elected governing body.
The withdrawal agreement must provide for the transition of administration and governance to properly elected governing bodies of the new school administrative unit. Once that governing body is in place, it will be responsible for future operational decisions, subject to Maine law, collective bargaining agreements, contractual obligations, and voter approval where required.
The first-year budget is an estimate, not a permanently fixed budget.
Maine law requires the withdrawal agreement to include an anticipated budget for the first year of operation, including estimated revenues and expenditures. That requirement provides voters with a financial projection for the proposed district, but future school budgets will be developed and acted upon through the normal statutory budget process.
The current withdrawal proposal estimates an initial local school budget of approximately $11.87 million. That figure represents the committee's proposed first-year budget based on the information and assumptions available during the withdrawal process. Future governing boards may recommend different spending levels as circumstances change, and voters will act on future budgets through the applicable school-budget process.
Staffing can be projected but not guaranteed.
A proposed staffing plan can be used to estimate costs and demonstrate how the new district could operate. Actual staffing will depend on circumstances at the time the district becomes operational, including employee decisions, contractual rights, collective bargaining agreements, available applicants, vacancies, and decisions made by the future governing board.
Educational programming can also change over time.
The withdrawal agreement can describe anticipated services and how students will be served during the transition. Longer-term decisions involving curriculum, programs, staffing models, and allocation of resources will be made by the governing school unit in accordance with applicable state and federal requirements.
For those reasons, figures and staffing plans presented during the withdrawal process should be understood as planning estimates and proposed operating assumptions, rather than guarantees about every future decision of the new school district.
No. Maine law does not require a withdrawal committee to provide long-term projections such as 2-, 5-, or 10-year mill rate forecasts or multi-year capital plans.
The withdrawal agreement is required to include an anticipated budget for the proposed school administrative unit for its first year of operation. That budget includes estimated revenues and expenditures and is intended to provide voters with an estimate of the financial requirements associated with the proposed district.
Longer-term projections may be developed for informational or planning purposes, but they are not specifically required as part of the statutory withdrawal agreement.
There are several limitations to long-term financial projections:
Future budgets depend on variables that can change annually.
State education subsidy, property valuations, enrollment, employee compensation, benefits, inflation, special education costs, transportation costs, and other factors may change from year to year.
Future tax rates are determined by more than the school budget.
A future mill rate would depend on the total municipal appropriation, school assessment, county assessment, taxable valuation, state reimbursements, and other revenues available in a particular year. For that reason, a future school budget alone cannot establish a guaranteed municipal mill rate.
Future governing boards and voters will make later budget decisions.
The first-year budget included with the withdrawal proposal is an estimate based on information available during the withdrawal process. Future school boards may recommend different spending levels, and future budgets will be acted upon through the applicable statutory budget process.
Capital planning may continue after reorganization.
Long-term facility improvements and capital projects would generally be considered by the governing school board as part of its future planning and budgeting process.
Existing Facility Studies
RSU 10 previously contracted with Harriman to conduct facility studies of Hartford-Sumner Elementary School and Buckfield Jr.-Sr. High School. Those studies include architectural assessments and identified facility needs that could be considered by a future school board when developing a capital improvement plan.
RSU 10 currently maintains those documents. Project information published by RSU 10 is linked on the Resources page of this site.
Committee members may participate in community Facebook groups and other public forums in their individual capacity. These are different from official town or withdrawal committee pages.
Serving on the committee does not require members to remain personally undecided. They may form and express opinions based on the information they have reviewed.
The key distinction is whether they are speaking personally or on behalf of the committee. Personal views should not be presented as the official position of the withdrawal committee.
Some residents may feel members should avoid advocacy to preserve the appearance of neutrality, while others may believe members should be free to participate in community discussions like any other resident.
Official committee documents and communications should be viewed separately from the personal opinions of individual members.
Yes. The proposed budget assumes that the new district would use part-time administrative positions for the Superintendent and Special Education Director rather than budgeting for both positions as full-time positions.
Maine law specifically allows a superintendent to be employed part-time. Under 20-A M.R.S. §1055(8-A), a part-time superintendent performs the duties agreed upon by the superintendent and the school board, subject to approval by the Commissioner of Education. A superintendent must also hold the appropriate State certification.
Maine law also recognizes arrangements in which superintendent services are shared. School administrative units may jointly purchase superintendent services through an Education Service Center, and Maine DOE specifically states that an SAU may purchase full- or part-time superintendent services and may share those services with other members of an Education Service Center.
For special education, the district remains legally responsible for administering its special education program and meeting all state and federal requirements, including identification, evaluation, services, Individualized Education Programs, and the provision of a Free Appropriate Public Education. Maine's certification rules establish a specific Administrator of Special Education credential, but the cited state requirements do not establish that every school administrative unit must employ that administrator as a full-time position.
Maine law also expressly allows Education Service Centers to provide special education programs and administration, as well as shared staff and other administrative services. This gives school districts the option of providing some administrative functions internally, sharing them with other districts, or obtaining them through a regional service arrangement while the individual district retains ultimate legal responsibility for its students.
These types of shared administrative structures already exist in Maine. For example, AOS 94, serving several communities and MSAD 46, states that its member districts share the costs and responsibilities of the Superintendent and Special Education administration. School Union 93, serving Blue Hill, Brooksville, Castine, Penobscot and Surry, similarly operates with the communities sharing a superintendent and central-office staff.
Education Service Centers provide another example. Maine DOE lists the Rocky Channels Education Service Center as providing its member school units with administrative staffing, central-office services and special education administration. The newly operational Johns Bay Coastal Alliance Education Service Center, serving Bristol and South Bristol, lists superintendent services and shared administrative directors among its services.
What does this mean for the proposed district?
The proposed budget demonstrates one possible staffing model; it does not permanently determine how the new district would be administered. If the reorganization is approved, the new School Board would ultimately be responsible for hiring qualified administrators, determining their duties and employment arrangements, complying with Maine Department of Education requirements, and proposing future budgets.
Maine law permits part-time and shared-service administrative arrangements, and similar shared administrative structures are currently used by some Maine school units. Whether part-time positions alone would be sufficient for the new district would depend on factors such as workload, student needs, special education caseloads, the division of responsibilities among administrators, the availability of qualified personnel, and any shared-service arrangements established by the new School Board.
No. However, school nutrition is accounted for differently from the district’s general operating budget.
School nutrition programs receive dedicated revenues, including state and federal meal reimbursements and other food-service revenues. Under federal requirements, money in the nonprofit school food service account is restricted to the operation or improvement of the school nutrition program. Maine DOE therefore accounts for school nutrition revenues and expenditures separately from the general educational operating costs shown in the district’s primary budget categories.
The Withdrawal Committee’s proposed general operating budget does not include the entire cost of operating the nutrition program as a general-fund expense because the nutrition program has its own revenues and expenditures.
The program would be supported by several sources of revenue, including state and federal meal reimbursements and other eligible nutrition-program revenues. Maine DOE publishes reimbursement rates for participating school nutrition programs each year.
In addition, the withdrawal planning process currently estimates that approximately $30,000 in nutrition-related funds would come to the new district from the existing RSU as part of the transition.
No. The current nutrition projections are preliminary.
The Committee has developed initial estimates using the information presently available. Those preliminary models indicate that anticipated nutrition revenues, including the estimated $30,000, would be sufficient to support the projected program expenses.
However, the Committee has requested additional school-specific nutrition financial and operating data from RSU 10. That information is important because actual meal counts, reimbursement revenue, staffing expenses, food costs and other school-specific information allow for a more accurate projection.
Once that information is received, the nutrition estimate can be updated using actual data rather than relying as heavily on assumptions.
Not necessarily. Like any budget projection, the final result will depend on actual revenues and expenses. Meal participation, reimbursement rates, staffing, food costs and other operating expenses can change from year to year.
At this stage, the available projections indicate that anticipated nutrition revenues would be sufficient to cover the estimated expenses. A more precise determination can be made after the requested school-specific information is received and reviewed.
In summary: Nutrition was not simply omitted from planning. It is a separately accounted-for program supported by restricted nutrition revenues. Preliminary estimates have been developed, but the Committee is awaiting additional RSU 10 data before a more complete school-specific nutrition budget can be prepared.
Not by itself. Once voters approve a petition to begin the withdrawal process and a withdrawal committee is formed, Maine law assigns the committee responsibility for preparing the withdrawal agreement.
The process generally follows these steps:
The withdrawal committee is formed following the initial municipal vote.
The committee is responsible for preparing a proposed withdrawal agreement.
The agreement is generally required to be submitted to the Maine Commissioner of Education within 90 days after the committee is formed. The Commissioner may grant extensions upon request.
The Commissioner reviews the proposed agreement and may require changes before granting conditional approval.
Following conditional approval, a public hearing is held and the withdrawal committee submits a final agreement to the Commissioner.
The Commissioner then establishes the date on which voters consider the withdrawal agreement.
Because a completed and conditionally approved agreement is required before the final referendum can occur, unresolved negotiations or delays in completing the agreement can delay the process.
The withdrawal committee does not independently decide the final outcome. Withdrawal ultimately requires completion of the statutory process and approval by the voters.
No. Once the Maine Commissioner of Education has completed the applicable approval process and established the date for the withdrawal vote, Maine law requires the municipality to hold the referendum on that date.
Under 20-A M.R.S. §1466:
The Commissioner determines the date on which voters will consider the withdrawal agreement.
At least 35 days before the election, the Commissioner provides written notice of the date to the municipal clerk.
The clerk must immediately notify the municipal officers.
The municipal officers must then issue a warrant for the special town meeting or election to be held on the date designated by the Commissioner.
The statute specifically provides that no other election date may be used.
At that stage of the process, the municipality's role is to conduct the required election. The decision whether to approve or reject the withdrawal agreement rests with the voters.
Maine law provides that a municipality may not petition for withdrawal again for two years if the withdrawal agreement receives less than 45% of the votes cast.
The Maine Department of Education has specifically advised Buckfield, Hartford, and Sumner that their November 3, 2026 withdrawal votes are governed by 20-A M.R.S. §1466(9), the general RSU withdrawal voting provision. Section 1466(10) is the corresponding restriction on subsequent withdrawal petitions and establishes the 45% threshold.
Therefore, if a withdrawal agreement is rejected but receives at least 45% of the votes cast, the two-year restriction in §1466(10) would not apply. If it receives less than 45%, the municipality could not petition for withdrawal again for two years.
A transition budget is temporary funding used during the period between voter approval of a new school district and the date the new district becomes fully operational. It may cover start-up expenses such as legal and administrative work, financial and payroll systems, insurance, contracting, and other costs necessary to prepare the new district for operation. Maine law specifically provides for a newly forming regional school unit to incur and expend start-up funds before its operational date.
More than $100,000 remains from funds previously appropriated by the three towns for the withdrawal process. Based on current estimates, approximately another $125,000 would be needed for transition expenses.
That additional amount could be funded through appropriations from the available fund balances of Buckfield, Hartford, and Sumner, subject to voter approval in each town. If funded from existing fund balance rather than through additional property taxation, the transition funding itself would not require an additional tax increase beyond the amounts reflected in the Withdrawal Committee’s proposed school budget. Using fund balance would, however, reduce the amount of reserves available to each town for other purposes.
The exact amount and funding method would ultimately be determined through the municipal appropriation process and voter approval.