In Alna July 19, selectmen continued defending their stance on student residency and heard fresh comments on the issue from a new resident and longtime ones. Third Selectman Doug Baston said the matter might wind up in court. At one point, he said it likely will.

Judith Fossel took issue with the board’s questions about her tenant Ona Brazwell. Fossel asked board members what the hell was going on. Going by a state education official’s email Brazwell recently read to the board, Fossel maintains the board’s position calling for students’ year-round residency breaks the law.

Baston and First Selectman David Abbott said they want to spare the town from paying school costs for students in town for the school year only. Alna and Westport Island have school choice for kindergarten through grade 12; the rest of Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12 has it for high school, former SVRSU 12 board member Ralph Hilton said. He said towns are paying about $13,200 a year per student, and Alna has 119. School choice is a “war” in all the towns, because they all have school choice, he said. He did not state a position.

Second Selectman Melissa Spinney, taking part via the speaker on Abbott’s cell phone due to illness, asked if Brazwell was still living at Fossel’s Route 218 property. Fossel said Brazwell renewed her lease and was on vacation, not that it was anyone’s business, Fossel added.

“I’m going to guess it’s a three-month vacation?” Baston asked.

“Yeah, all summer, huh? That’s convenient,” Spinney said.

“Wait a minute. What the hell’s going on here,” Fossel responded. Where Brazwell lives has nothing to do with them, she told selectmen.

“I thought that was pretty much the whole issue,” Abbott said.

In a phone interview Friday, Brazwell agreed with Fossel the selectmen don’t need to know where she is. She confirmed she is not gone for the summer, and she has extended her lease at Fossel’s. She moved there while house-hunting and has fallen in love with Alna, she said. She declined comment on where her children attend school.

Former selectman Chris Cooper said Alna’s school choice for the elementary grades is an unfortunate legacy, growing the number of students by attracting families who want to send their children to private schools at Alna taxpayers’ expense. It’s almost like there’s a billboard directing people to Alna to get their children into private schools, he said. When children attend the public schools, their families are invested in the schools, he said. Cooper urged the board to meet with selectmen in Westport Island and work on confining elementary school choice to public schools.

Spending public money on private schools undercuts the education of the vast majority of students — those who attend public schools, Cooper said.

Elementary school choice creates a schism, Cooper said. The last time he saw an issue so divisive was in 1977, when the town was considering buying a bus to take high school students to school, he said.

A new Alna homebuyer, Meredith Tisbert, offered selectmen her perspective. Coming from a California community whose population exploded, she looked a year for a new home and found Alna was what she was looking for, rural, and school choice was part of the reason, she said. She heard about Juniper Hill School and has found, with the local roots of those involved and the sense of community, it is Alna, she said.

She told selectmen she agrees with wanting to have taxpayers’ money going to public schools, but she said the issue has gotten out of hand. She doubted people are coming there just for school choice. Tisbert said she has told her husband she would have to be taken dead out of the town.

“I know I’m new, but I am never leaving here,” she said. “The kindness that I have felt ... I didn’t know people could be this genuine.”

Also July 19, the board announced it will meet with local internet providers and consultant Mike Edgecomb at 9 a.m. Thursday, July 27 at Tidewater Telecom’s office at 133 Back Meadow Road in Nobleboro, to determine which parts of Alna lack service and whether or not any of the town’s ConnectME funding can help fill in those gaps. The board may find the providers will add the service on their own, selectmen said. It’s a public meeting because at least two of the three selectmen will be there, members said.