[Local-Maine-Schools] Consolidation Blues: [Gail Marshall - 2/05/2007]

[Brian Hubbell]

Brian,

I hope the rest of the testimony you heard was useful.
As I drove home, I thought about the general atmosphere of the room,
and I came up with these thoughts:

After listening to hours of presentation of testimony on one side of
the regionalization debate a couple of things stood out.

1.  Many people from many different districts said they are not
opposed to collaborating and working towards efficiencies. Many gave
examples of how they already do that.


2.  Everyone said leave local control alone.


3.  Everyone said they had not been asked to try to figure out
solutions to some of the perceived problems.


4.  Every one said the Governor's plan was terrible



Is there a place for  suggestion that legislation require districts
(start with the 26 if you want?) send an administrator and school
board member to district wide meetings. Task this group with learning
what other schools do already and with looking at efficiencies and
improving educational opportunities in a responsible way. The task
forces should also be required to develop suggested best practices for
how DOE and schools can work TOGETHER to set goals and get things
done.
Give them the list of possible areas of collaboration in the Maine
Heritage proposal, but do not limit or mandate the discussion to that.
Task them with considering possible consolidations, but not requiring
it. Allow this group to split into as many subgroups as it wants.
(Geographically driven, or whatever other factor chosen) Have a
mechanism for bringing this discussion to citizens within each town.
Work with town officials as appropriate. Groups prepare reports and
share work with other districts on line as work proceeds. Give it a
year to happen. See who can come up with the best proposals for
dealing with declining enrollments, overhead, shared services, etc. I
am not proposing those then be mandated state wide, because they still
might be inappropriate for other places. Encourage implementation,
including experiments that are abandoned if circumstances warrant.

Along with this, make the Governor X-nay any new plans like the
increase in graduation requirements, laptops state wide, etc., that
would drive the budget up for now. And kill the increased class size
until the true cost and impact can be studies. Make it DOE's job to
work WITH schools this next year to see how much difference we can
make rather than working overtime to figure out new things to tell us
to do.


I know that this leaves untouched the issue of the budget, which the
Governor has unwisely tied to his ghastly bill.
Is the Governor accelerating 55% funding? Maybe that should be slowed down.

I don't have this all that well thought out, so I am not totally sure
what I am suggesting, but…

I am reminded not of Arkansas (good grief!) but of American Airlines,
which was deep in debt, and spending a gargantuan amount of money to
overhaul airplanes. They went to the workers (and unions) and said:
please work with us to do this better, faster, for less. And the
workers designed what is alleged to be a vastly superior method of
working that was so much more efficient that American Airlines now
makes money in Texas overhauling airplanes for other companies.

Gail