[Local-Maine-Schools] Open letter to MDI legislators (from Scott McFarland)

[Brian Hubbell]

Dear Dennis, Ted and Hannah,

I have been carefully monitoring the recent work sessions that both
the education and appropriations committees (and subcommittees) have
been involved with. Now that the appropriations subcommittee seems to
have a head of steam and are seemingly headed in a direction that
deeply concerns me, I  am prompted to write you to voice my opposition
to any plan that forces consolidation, ends school unions and
restricts local control. As you may know, the amount of school subsidy
that we receive from the state is a minimal amount of money, compared
to other schools and the current structure of our school union
provides us with a mechanism of local control that is essential to
maintaining the services that we provide for our students.

Though Mt. Desert is known as a rich community, I can assure you that
we are far from being a school loaded with frills and money to burn.
What we are, is a school that exists in a community that values their
children and are willing to make the necessary sacrifices to provide
the key ingredients essential to the education of the whole child
including, but not limited to strong academics, co-curricular
activities, fine arts experiences and special services such as
counseling and adaptive physical education that are making a huge
impact on our students at need. My fear is that we will be mandated to
follow a plan that removes this local control, relegates our future to
people outside of our community  and subsequently will result in the
loss of the services that make us one of the top schools in the state.

It is my opinion that what we have works for us and that a local
contribution of a little over 1 mill for education is not a burden on
the local tax payers. I AM fully in favor of a plan that will identify
schools at need and provide the necessary resources for those schools
without compromising the integrity and quality of those model schools
such as ourselves. This should not be a question of how we change the
system for everyone, rather it should be about identifying and
correcting those that need the proper interventions.

Regarding EPS, I recently did a  calculation of what our school would
look like using the EPS figures as a budget, without the opportunity
for raising any additional funds locally as we do now. We would become
a school with several multi-age classrooms with student numbers in the
30's, specialists would be reduced to part -time/some positions
eliminated, and French would no longer be offered along with possibly
Reading Recovery. For the life of me I cannot figure out how the EPS
formula works for small school such as MDES. I do hear the folks in
Augusta mention that EPS was not meant to represent what an actual
budget should be, but with talk of limiting raising funds above and
beyond EPS or requiring a 2/3rd's vote via a referendum, it could very
well result in a school having to operate at this level.

This would result in a catastrophic decrease in the quality of our
school and believe me that I am far from being an alarmist. I feel
that I cannot stand by and watch idly any plan developed that would
dismantle the quality educational system that we have in place,
especially in light of how these decisions are being made in such an
arbitrary fashion. It has been mentioned that the only ones that have
been making a stink about all of these consolidation plans are us
self- serving educators. I am sorry but the terms self-serving and
educators do not belong in the same company, rather we are passionate
advocates for our children whose future is at stake over decisions
that are being made behind closed doors and at a speed that precludes
the chance of a thoughtful, constructive, well planned intervention to
the state's financial issues. Please, please be a strong advocate for
our needs!! It seems that none of us have a voice in these decisions
and that you are our only hope for the preservation of school union
#98 and for all that we proudly represent.

Thank you for your attention.

 Sincerely,

 Scott D. McFarland
 Principal
 Mount Desert Elementary School
 P.O.Box 308
 Northeast Harbor, Maine 04662