A parent-teacher group plans to ask the Wiscasset School Committee to seek a vision for the school system's future. Partners in Education (PIE) could get to make that request as early as Thursday, May 1.

School Committee member Colleen Bennett on April 28 agreed to try to get the request onto the agenda for the committee's 6 p.m. Thursday meeting, in the Wiscasset High School library.

The school committee would have jurisdiction over policies that help carry out a vision, so it would need to head the process of creating one, former Wiscasset Middle School principal Donald Siviski told a PIE subcommittee.

The group can offer to help with the work, said Siviski, a Wiscasset resident and also a former assistant superintendent of schools in town.

PIE, a nonprofit, has been conducting a survey to get ideas and opinions on public education. Participants in Monday night's discussion at Wiscasset Primary School said their efforts to move toward a vision come at an uneasy, even fearful time for the town, particularly due to the potential for a large tax hike the first year outside Regional School Unit 12.

“We're between a rock and a hard place ...,” Kim Andersson said. “So many people are tired of all the change and don’t feel they have a voice. But it doesn’t work if you  just sit on the couch.”

The group discussed possibly having an outside facilitator for community meetings; Siviski estimated that would cost $2,000 to $2,500. PIE could cover the cost through fundraising, Andersson said.

She said she didn't want tax money to fund the facilitator.

The vision can't be rushed if it's going to bring about confidence in the direction the school system is heading, according to Siviski. Opinions are going to start as a cacophony and will need time to be synthesized into something people will support, he said.

“That's the difference between doing it right and doing it quickly so that you get a statement on your stationery,” Siviski told fellow meeting-goers.