[Local-Maine-Schools] Education Committee: 2/09

[Brian Hubbell]

I listened to the last third or so of the Education Committee's
meeting today.  In that time I heard presentations by three
superintendents from (Kennebunk?), Boothbay, and Augusta -- all of
whom I believe spoke up in favor of the same things we would have.

The superintendent from Boothbay in particular mentioned some of
relative advantages and efficiencies of a union structure.  Committee
member Representative McFadden also mentioned several times that he
favored keeping the existing school unions in his district in
Washington County.

>From the superintendents there were some interesting revelations about
the different ways  administrative expenses are reported.  In
Boothbay, the administrative costs were below EPS although the overall
budget was above while in the southern Maine super's larger district
they were overall below EPS but administrative costs were well above.
This turned out to be because in the southern district technology
support  is reported as an administrative cost, while in Boothbay it
was listed as part of instructional services.  Either way, technology
support is not included in EPS -- which of course is the root cause of
the problem.

The Committee adjourned until Tuesday, after requesting some groups
and staff (Dr. Phil McCarthy?) to assemble more information.
Particularly significantly, they asked for an opinion form the
Attorney General regarding their authority to abolish existing
municipal school units -- and in this I believe I clearly heard that
they would be greatly relieved to learn that they in fact CANNOT.

The representative from MMA seemed sorry to tell them that as he
understood it they did in fact have such authority.  However he
reminded them of the potential legal problem of reassigning existing
debt to new municipalities which had not specifically voted to assume
it.

In the interim until their next meeting on Tuesday, I believe that the
committee asked their staff to summarize where they had so far
achieved some consensus.  I understood that this was work towards
developing a plan of work.  Also I understood that the committee
members each were going to summarize their own positions at this point
as best they could and circulate those among themselves over the
weekend.

So, I agree with Rob: this might be a very good time to let them know
-- very positively -- what we could support, as they struggle on how
to proceed.

They already know very well that we don't like the Governor's plan.
Nothing in their discussion so far suggests that any of them favor it
either.  What they're trying to figure out is how to create
opportunities for locally-directed regional collaborations that can
realize real cost savings.  No more and no less, I think.

So keep those emails going.  You should be able to find all the
contact information you need at the 'legislators' section at the
bottom of our page at :
http://mdischools.net/

Hastily,
Brian