Board members discuss possible pilot-program allowing Woodland high-schoolers to attend Washburn District High School
By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
WOODLAND — With expressed support from many in the community, members of Woodland’s School Department are starting to look harder at the possibility of sending high school students to Washburn for their education instead of Caribou.
Discussions between Woodland and Washburn are still in the very beginning stages, but Woodland School Department members were unanimous in their belief that should the town begin tuitioning students to Washburn, arrangements should be made to enable Woodland’s current CHS students to continue their education in Caribou.
Expressed during their monthly meeting on March 12, board members are hopeful that the cost savings associated with the possible shift in high schools will help the town’s tax burden.
While cost savings is appealing for any entity, the board expressed that the discussion is about much more than finances.
“It’s not necessarily about money,” explained board member Ann Doody. “It’s about the idea that a lot of our students would probably do better in a smaller school.”
Interim Superintendent of School Union 122 Roland Caron seemed to agree.
“When you transition from a small school to a much larger school, it’s a rough transition for freshmen,” he explained. “It’s rough for every eighth-grader who transitions.”
The school board first entertained this potential high school shift 10 years ago, as board member Wanda Anderson explained, but the community was against it.
“It seems to me that there’s been a change in attitude toward Caribou,” Anderson said, expressing to the board that of all the Woodland parents who’ve approached her on the subject, none have said “no way, no how.”
Anderson said that one parent did question, “Would you pull my child [from CHS],” which Anderson expressed she would be against.
The Woodland School Board’s five members visited the Washburn school earlier this month to learn more about the school and take a tour, and a second meeting was scheduled in Woodland last night. They reported that they were pleased with what they found at the Washburn High School, agreeing “it feels like Woodland.”
Though members of the board discussed that tuitioning their students to Washburn District High School could mean good things for their students and their budget (and cost-savings on high school students’ tuition could help strengthen the Woodland Community School), the board is looking to learn the town’s opinion on the matter.
“We don’t want to get the cart ahead of the horse,” board member Cindy Noyes cautioned.
In the spirit of cost savings, Anderson questioned her fellow board members what they would do if the RSU offered them a deal on tuitioning the town’s high-schoolers; the board answered that they’d still consider Washburn’s small school as an option.
“If we can save [money] and still offer our students options, that’s ideal,” Anderson said.
With a very dry sense of humor, Caron offered the board a mascot observation:
“If you look it up, woodchucks are closely related to beavers,” he said, and the board met his comment with laughter.
