Regional School Unit 2 has failed the towns’ schools that it administers. Monmouth, Richmond, and now Dresden have or are planning to attempt to leave this school district.

Withdrawal has failed in Monmouth and Richmond because not enough voters participated. In Monmouth voters overwhelming voted to withdraw but were about 25 votes shy of the total number of voters needed. The same was true in Richmond. In Richmond 880 voters were needed but only 550 participated. The majority, 434, voted to leave the RSU and 98 voted to stay. As in Monmouth, a voter who didn’t want to leave the RSU could simply not vote in order to keep the voter turnout lower than the required number. This was likely the case in both towns.

The concept of combining school districts to save money hasn’t worked. It has rather increased costs for education with property taxpayers having to foot the bill. This is obviously true in Monmouth.

Because of RSU 2’s leadership, its policies, and its failure to implement needed changes in the way our schools educate our children, it has cost Monmouth the loss of Monmouth Academy Principal Rick Amero, who personifies the best of educators. The enormity of his loss for our students, for our teachers, and for the community cannot be adequately quantified. It is simply huge. It is said that Rick bleeds maroon and white. He grew up in Monmouth, attended Monmouth schools, and returned to teach at Monmouth Academy and then become its leader.

The new principal will, hopefully, be a fine leader for the school, but truly, no one can replace what Monmouth schools have lost.

There is too much evidence that with this RSU’s inadequacies, it is time for Monmouth, Richmond, and Dresden to retake local control of their town’s schools and end participation in RSU 2 with all its negative consequences.

Let’s make this happen.

Douglas Ludewig

Monmouth