WATERVILLE $ Voters on Jan. 13 will decide whether Waterville public schools should share resources with Winslow and Vassalboro schools.

City councilors on Tuesday took two final votes to set the special referendum, to be held 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the American Legion hall on College Avenue.

As part of their vote Jan. 13, Waterville residents will determine if city schools will become part of an Alternative Organizational Structure, or AOS, with the other two school systems.

An AOS is essentially a consolidation of more than one school system, but it maintains a greater degree of local control than a regional school unit, which many schools are forming statewide.

Public hearings on the AOS will be held in Waterville, Winslow and Vassalboro prior to voting in each town so that people can ask questions and learn more about the plan. Residents may attend any of the three sessions.

Waterville's hearing will be held Dec. 9; Vassalboro's, Dec. 16; and Winslow's, Jan. 6. All will be held at 7 p.m. at locations to be announced.

Councilors Tuesday night said it is imperative that information about the school plan be available to the public. Chairman Dana W. Sennett, D-Ward 4, and others said people have been asking them questions about the plan that they could not answer.

"I'm just wondering if there's a source for people to go (to) for more information," Sennett said.

City Manager Michael J. Roy said the Waterville Board of Education on Monday will discuss the plan in detail, and that would be a time for the public to learn more.

That meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. in the media center at Waterville Senior high School.

Mayor Paul R. LePage said the danger in the public's not having enough information about the plan is that they will tend to vote against it.

Sennett said people who have been asking him questions assume he has information because he is a city councilor but that is not the case.

"I had to tell them I didn't, and I didn't know if any of us have specific answers," he said.

The three school systems would maintain separate school boards. Roy said an AOS would have one "mother" board made up of people from the three communities.

Sennett said a resident asked him how all the computer systems in the three school units would be integrated.

Roy said they would be integrated, but not immediately.

"I think they'll work toward a combined system, but I think it will take a long time," he said.

Schools Superintendent Eric L. Haley has said that if voters in only two of the municipalities decide to become part of the AOS, some of the aspects of the plan would change.

He said if voters approve the plan, the state Board of Education then has to approve/create the AOS as a final step.

Amy Calder $ 861-9247
acalder@centralmaine.com