[Local-Maine-Schools] respose to your response
Tom Burton
jtb3 at roadrunner.com
Wed Feb 6 10:50:27 EST 2008
Dear Mr.Keenan, The tone of your e-mail is unnecessarily antagonistic
and hostile. You must not know Brian Hubbell or be aware of the service
that he has done and is doing for our entire Island community or you
would be embarrassed by your unwarranted attack on him. Brian is the
most thoughtful, measured, un-political person that I know...everything
he does is for the /common/ good. If you had read all the way to the
bottom of his e-mail, you would have seen that the list was not
generated by him, but was sourced as:
Source:
>> > Dr. David L. Silvernail; The Identification of Higher and Lower
>> > Performing Maine Schools, School Profiles and Characteristics; Maine
>> > Education Policy Research Institute; May 2007
The only reason Brian included that was as a rebuttal to the inane
editorial in Press Herald. He then responded to your first e-mail with
an innocuous response asserting that you should maintain local control &
destiny of your own school...which is what I believe we all support.
Your "back-sider as victim" or second class citizen argument is dated
frankly...with your connection to the high school and your background in
education, I would think you would be more informed with the efforts of
the last few years. The work at including staff from all the Island
schools in the development of the curriculum, the efforts of the
Superintendent's office to disseminate information, communication and
services evenhandedly across the entire Union has been unprecedented and
should be a model statewide.
I think if you look close to home you'll find examples within your own
community of residents who don't believe that your school has supported
sports programs to their level of desire and have somehow maneuvered
their children into Pemetic to have them play at a higher level. This
(& declining enrollment) began some of the rumblings that have been
heard about your school consolidating with Pemetic...I've never heard
Blue Hill. Brian Hubbell's point of local control is particularly
pertinent here. If Tremont and Pemetic were to merge, that should be
decided by the citizens of those towns...not Bar Harbor or Mt. Desert.
Your "poorer vs. wealthier" or "well-healed"(sp) are specious arguments
as well. If you indeed know residents all over the Island, every
community has a large number of families who are struggling
financially. As far as applying various town interests, the point has
been made many times that if you attended a high school or Union meeting
which has representatives from all the towns and the outer Islands, you
would be hard pressed to identify who is from where - we all are working
for the good of all of our children.
As far as the newspaper thing goes...are you serious? Boston has a
bigger paper & doesn't report on Bangor! Do you really think we have
any control of that? Perhaps you should look inward...I know factually
that the way the "Athlete-of-the week" is included is based on
submissions by the family of the athlete. Check your phone book for the
listings of the local papers and call the editors regarding your son's
achievement (kudos, by the way)...but bringing it into a discussion such
as this is simply inflammatory.
Thanks for your time in reading this and if you like to see what Brian
Hubbell is doing for all of us follow this link and spend a few hours....
http://sparkflashgap.net/School/SchoolConsolidationReferences.html
Tom Burton
frank wrote:
>
> Actually,thats not the inference I would draw from that either.What I
> would
> say is that your list is just another example of how poorer
> communities that
> are adjacent to much wealthier and supportive communities,as far as
> education is concerned,often perform substandard to thier
> counterparts.Which
> in this case,since all our kids end up at the same island wide high
> school,is in need of rectification.Your suggestion that Tremonnt is
> free to
> consolidate,frankly struck a nerve.With whom do you suggest we
> consolidate ?
> Perhaps Blue Hill.We could establish a flotilla of boats to ferry our kids
> accross the bay!This disparity will never end untill all schools on this
> island are recognized as equal and supported the same.Your dismissal
> of the
> Tremont school so handidly ,speaks volumes to the pervaisive attitude on
> this island-,as well as exemplifies the true nature of this debate.The
> well-
> healed see no reason to prop up the not so well-healed-,even if they share
> the same geographical area,and ultimately send thier kids to the same high
> school,Tremont should feel free to consolidate...please.By the way,my
> fifth
> grader from Tremont won the National Geographic geography bee,beating two
> eigth graders in the process, for his school.The local newspaper didn't
> pick up the story.They did however report on the Conners Emerson
> winner ,who
> happened to be an eigth grader,and had pictures and accolades.Once
> again our
> little school was left out.Maybe the Blue Hill paper would be
> interested in
> the story.And I'd like to tell you what my son said after seeing the
> story.He said" huh, I guess Tremont School dosen't matter".It's
> interesting
> that at 11 years old he is already starting to feel the disparity that
> exists on this island,? Don't you think <sparkflashgap at gmail.com
> <mailto:sparkflashgap at gmail.com>>
> To: <keengumbo at gwi.net <mailto:keengumbo at gwi.net>>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 1:55 PM
> Subject: Re: [Local-Maine-Schools] Too much football
>
>
> > That's not an inference that I would draw from that.
> >
> > But I do think that, if Tremont citizens decide they want to
> > consolidate, they certainly should be allowed to.
> >
> > --Brian
> >
> > -------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Feb 5, 2008 12:54 PM, <keengumbo at gwi.net
> <mailto:keengumbo at gwi.net>> wrote:
> >> I noticed Tremont is not included on your list.Does that mean that
> we in
> >> Tremont would benefit from consolidation?
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "Brian Hubbell" <sparkflashgap at gmail.com
> <mailto:sparkflashgap at gmail.com>>
> >> To: <local-maine-schools at mainetalk.org
> <mailto:local-maine-schools at mainetalk.org>>
> >> Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 11:17 AM
> >> Subject: [Local-Maine-Schools] Too much football
> >>
> >>
> >> > Re: Local control of education should have its limits, Elinor Multer
> >> > http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=167181&ac=PHedi
> <http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=167181&ac=PHedi>
> >> >
> >> > QUOTE:
> >> >>Local control of education should have its limits
> >> >>For example, it asserts community prerogatives
> >> >>are more important than students' interests.
> >> >
> >> >>...local school groups and the organizations that
> >> >>represent them have failed to recognize reasonable
> >> >>limits for that control, even when it subverts local education.
> >> >>...so the politicians took what seemed to offer
> >> >> the only available route. They tied consolidation
> >> >>to the budget and rammed it through.
> >> >
> >> > This is nonsense. Ms Multer apparently has been watching too much
> >> > football if she believes that degree of opposition is proof of the
> >> > value in brute-force school consolidation
> >> >
> >> > Listed below are most of the high-performing schools in the state.
> >> > Every one of them presently operates under what Ms. Multer
> >> > characterizes as the impoverishment of local control.
> >> >
> >> > These schools run the full range of sizes. But what each has in
> >> > common is a direct local relationship between school, governance,
> >> > town, and taxpayers.
> >> >
> >> > Asa C Adams School, Orono
> >> > Bangor High School
> >> > Boothbay Region Elementary School
> >> > Brunswick Jr High School
> >> > Cape Elizabeth High School
> >> > Cape Elizabeth Middle School
> >> > Coastal Ridge Elementary, York
> >> > Conners-Emerson School, Bar Harbor
> >> > Dresden Elementary School
> >> > Easton Elementary School
> >> > Easton Junior-Senior High School
> >> > Eastport Elementary School
> >> > Edgecomb Eddy School
> >> > Ellsworth Middle School
> >> > Falmouth Middle School
> >> > Farwell Elementary School, Lewiston
> >> > Frank H Harrison Middle School, Yarmouth
> >> > Gorham High School
> >> > Great Salt Bay Community School, Damariscotta
> >> > Harrison Lyseth Elementary School, Portland
> >> > Jonesport Elementary School
> >> > Jordan Acres School, Brunswick
> >> > Longfellow School, Brunswick
> >> > Longfellow School, Portland
> >> > Madawaska Middle/High School
> >> > Marcia Buker School, Richmond
> >> > Monmouth Academy
> >> > Mount Desert Elementary School
> >> > Mount Desert Island High School
> >> > Mount Vernon Elementary School
> >> > New Sweden Consolidated School
> >> > Orono Middle School
> >> > Palermo Consolidated School
> >> > Perry Elementary School
> >> > Pond Cove Elementary, Cape Elizabeth
> >> > Raymond Elementary School
> >> > Robbinston Grade School
> >> > Scarborough Middle School
> >> > Veazie Community School
> >> > Waterville High School
> >> > Wayne Elementary School
> >> > Wells Elementary School
> >> > Wells Junior High School
> >> > William S Cohen School, Bangor
> >> > Wiscasset Primary School
> >> > Yarmouth Elementary School
> >> > Yarmouth High School
> >> >
> >> > Source:
> >> > Dr. David L. Silvernail; The Identification of Higher and Lower
> >> > Performing Maine Schools, School Profiles and Characteristics; Maine
> >> > Education Policy Research Institute; May 2007
> >> > http://www.usm.maine.edu/cepare/Reports/IdentifyingHigher.pdf
> >> >
> >>
> >> > _______________________________________________
> >> > Local-Maine-Schools mailing list
> >> > To send a message to the list, write to:
> >> > Local-Maine-Schools at mainetalk.org
> <mailto:Local-Maine-Schools at mainetalk.org>
> >> > To unsubscribe or change subscription settings:
> >> >
> http://mainetalk.org/mailman/listinfo/local-maine-schools_mainetalk.org
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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--
Tom Burton
Bar Harbor Blues Authority
& Burwaldo’s, Inc.
6 Pleasant St.
Bar Harbor, ME 04609
Office 207-288-3241
Fax 207-288-3241
Home 207-288-5487
Cell 207-266-2231
jtb3 at roadrunner.com
burwaldos at verizon.net
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