I sent the note below ( a long letter) to every Legislator too. The replies that I received so far are on the top.
There is hope and some are listening and replying. Any chance of a bunch of teachers and other citizens going to Augusta?
George Crawford
Jonesboro Elementary School
Jonesbor0, ME 04648
Thanks George for your thoughtful letter on the budget and education reform
package. As things stand now, I am leaning heavily toward pushing my red
button. Alas, it will probably not have much of an impact as I am a member of
the minority party and most of my votes are for naught. I do believe in
principles however and will continue to speak and vote for sanity in state
goverment. For your edification, I spent 13 years on the school board of MSAD
#36, several as chairperson. Am well acquainted with the system and not
really very happy with much of the outcomes of our current system. LGary.Knight
Very well put. Thanks H Gary Cotta
George,
This governor has performed in this manner his entire tenure. I continue to
be amazed that the people did not see it in his first term. I will not vote
for this budget. I believe this type of policy change should be
thoughtfully considered and 5 months will not do that. It should be pulled
out of the budget and taken up over a 2 to 4 year time frame to do it right.
No danger of me voting for it.
Rep. Lewin
PO Box 165
Rock Maple Road
Harrington, ME 04643
June 3, 2007
207-483-6199 (Home)
207-434-2602 (Work)
Dear Maine State Representative:
Sometime in the coming week you will be asked to vote the biennial
budget for 2008-2010. Built into this budget is a school governance
reform bill that I feel will have a devastating impact on Maine’s K-12
educational system and the local decision-making ability of Maine towns
on their schools.
I am a teacher of 17 years at the Jonesboro Elementary School in
Jonesboro, Maine in Washington County. I teach in a small school of 60
students that is a part of School Union 102.
From my perspective as a teacher and a citizen, some of the aspects of
this bill are scary and others are very undemocratic.
One issue that bothers me very much is the choice of governance models
of the proposed Regional School Districts. The new Regional School Units
(RSU) rely on the SAD governance model. Towns in an SAD have weighted
votes on a regional school board. This means that bigger towns will have
more influence and voting power than the smaller towns. I feel that the
larger towns will dominate the RSU board and many smaller towns will be
left with little or no influence over their schools.
This is especially true where I live in Washington County. In order to
get close to the 2,500 student level that is required by the plan, the
Western Washington County District where I live would be required to
have around 20 towns in the RSU. My district would stretch from
Milbridge to Lubec. This is about 60 miles to 70 miles along the Route 1
and also has peninsulas and goes inland. It is too big of a geographic
area to be maintained by one Superintendent and be effectively governed
by one central office.
I have worked in a School Union for 17 years. School Unions will be
eliminated under this bill. School Unions are where each town has a
School Committee that runs the school or schools in the town and they
share a Superintendent and a central office. Some school unions also
share a teaching staff and other personnel. This allows local people to
make decisions for their schools over curriculum, staffing, budgeting,
and other issues that would be given up Regional School Units come into
existence. School Unions also make the school committee accountable to
the citizens of the town for their school.
School Unions are also adaptable to different circumstances yet leave
local control and decision-making. The budget bill also lets the
Regional School Units create Local School Committees with currently
undefined powers. I feel that these are renamed “Local Advisory
Councils” from the Governor’s plan that can only advise the regional
board and not make binding decisions like the current school committees.
They also prevent much of the fighting over resources and schools that
many SADs currently have.
Our RSU would consist of approximately 17 elementary schools, 3 public
high schools, and 1 semiprivate high school. I believe strongly that
many of the elementary schools would be closed if this bill passes by
the regional board despite the 2/3 vote of the school board. The local
referendum part of closure requires the town with the school to pay the
costs of running the school and also the money to the RSU would have
saved by closing the school. This “stacks the deck” so that the school
would be closed. It makes it too expensive for the town.
Another aspect of the bill that bothers me is the process of
consolidation of school governance. The pressures in the push to have
the consolidating school districts make decisions to have a vote by next
January are enormous. The new budget must decide a governance structure,
school personnel, disposition of school assets, and many other financial
and local issues in a compressed time frame. The new RSU will also have
state hired moderators that I feel will have enormous power. Regular
school committee members are required to make major decisions over
school reform while juggling family and work responsibilities. They are
being asked to do a full time “school reform” job from July to December
while holding other responsibilities. Many will follow the lead of the
“facilitator.”
The referendum question explanation is also worded very ominously that
must be voted on next January. The question and referendum explanation
are below from the bill.
Do you favor approving the school reorganization plan approved by the
(insert name) Reorganization Planning Committee to reorganize the
(insert the names of the affected school administrative units) into a
Regional School Unit with an effective date of _______________?
Explanation
A “Yes” vote means that you approve the (municipality or SAU ) joining
the Regional School Unit. The financial penalties under 20-A MRSA
Section 15696 no longer apply to the proposed new Regional School Unit.
I do not feel that the threat of financial penalties should be included
in the referendum question because it will influence the vote to approve
the new RSU. The threat of penalties makes it so that people that are
unfamiliar with the plan will vote for the new RSU because if they don’t
then their town will face financial penalties in the loss of sate
subsidies to their school.
This in my opinion is trying to get citizens to have a “rubber stamp”
vote to approve the consolidation and is unfair. It is especially more
important undemocratic.
The school funding mechanism of the bill and the limits that they will
place on local schools and communities are also ominous. Local towns
with high property valuation will see their property taxes rise in order
to meet the 2% required minimum mill rate for education. The cost
allocation of school funding is based on school population. Current
districts with unique local funding formulas will see the required local
funding amount rise with increases for towns with low valuations and
high numbers of students.
The new standard budgeting articles are also confusing to voters. The
vote to exceed EPS funding levels (80% of all towns currently do) would
require a referendum. The referendum question does not require an
explanation of why the district needs to exceed EPS. It does require an
explanation that if a district votes not to exceed EPS that property
taxes will be lowered.
EPS was originally intended to be a MINIMUM funding level for schools
and in this bill it is being indirectly used as a MAXCIMUM funding level.
Another aspect of the bill that bother me is the that towns are
required to give up their schools and all the items in them to the new
Regional School Unit without compensation. The towns and current districts
have invested local funding in their schools for many years. The loss of
the assets of the town and the loss of local governance of schools is
unfair. Towns are also left with the construction for their schools that
is not subsidized by the state. It is like your house being taken by
eminent domain without compensation and you still have to pay the mortgage
Required cuts in the bill also need to be looked at. Cutting 5% of
transportation costs is unwise in a time where a major increase in gas
or diesel prices can eat up all the savings in a short time. Cutting 5%
of building maintenance is also not a good idea. If the new districts
need to absorb many school buildings and not maintain them, then their
condition will go downhill steadily. Calais Middle School in the 1990s
ignored maintenance during tough budget times and had to be closed. A
new school was built to take the place of the old one.
Cuts in Special Education are also required at 5%. This is a large
growing part of school budgets but there is not much local control over
this, as the costs are required by state and federal law. School
districts also have to bear the cost if a special needs student moves
into their communities and requires a special school or residential
program. Many of these are in the thousands of dollars.
The school governance reform bill as it currently stands, is unfair to
Maine school children. The Governor and State Board of Education chair
have used the power of getting the resources out of administration and
into classrooms.
School administration in Maine has grown since the 1970s and numbers of
children in schools have overall gone down. The expectations of schools
to meet national, state, and local standards has grown along with the
programs that are now in schools. Hence the increase in administration.
The new administration model also has many false assumptions. The
national average of 3,000 students in a school district is one. If you
look at the population density of Maine, it is hard to have 3,000
students in many parts of the state. This is much easier in New York or
California with a higher concentration of people in an area.
Required cuts in school administration will create a new layer of
middle management and will also create another expensive system to
manage schools. The new RSU administration will not be able to function
effectively due to the administrative spending caps placed to limit the
growth of administration.
Any administrative reform should be done outside of the state budget
process and should involve Maine citizens. I testified to the Education
Committee on February 5th as a teacher and citizens on an all day public
hearing on school reform. I felt proud as a Maine teacher and citizen
that day Maine democracy was fair and still listened to the people.
This whole plan from the April plan of the Appropriations Committee and
this new plan of the Appropriations Committee have left local citizens,
teachers, school board members, and others out of the process and
reminds me of a backroom deal that is unfair to Maine citizens and was
done in haste.
The Department of Education should also not be required to review all
educational mandates. A review of educational mandates should be done
by an independent review commission of teachers and administrators and
the DOE. This ensures a much fairer process.
I urge you not to support this bill and be bold enough to say that the
bill is flawed. Also the state should say, we can’t afford 55% of
education costs and cut the GPA for education or something else to come
up with the $36.5 million needed to balance the budget.
The Governor is trying to have his cake and eat it too. He can say that
we are funding 55% of educational costs and balance the budget while
making educational reforms and putting the money into classrooms. He is
also cutting property taxes.
He is also eliminating local control of schools and local democracy and
limiting the power of Maine schools and citizens.
Please read the bill before voting on it and look at
http://www.mdischools.net website. This is a website run by School Union
98 (Bar Harbor Area) and looks at consolidation and how it will change
schools. Don’t just rely on the Department of Education summaries to
make an informed decision.
Thanks,
George Crawford
Title I and Technology Coordinator
Jonesboro Elementary School