[Local-Maine-Schools] January 31: Report from Augusta

[Brian Hubbell]

This morning, Gail, Paul, and I met up shortly after 5:00 and drove to
Augusta to attend a meeting of the Legislature's Rural Caucus.

Representative Edgecomb opened the meeting with a report on LD 1932.
The Committee's Majority Report was released last night (see:
http://mdischools.net/20080130_LD1932_MajorityReport.pdf ) and
contains a neutral fiscal note that says that while the law may affect
distribution of subsidy between school units, the effect on individual
units can not be determined at this time.  Representative Edgecomb
said that it is rumored that the Department of Education is arguing
that the Minority report should carry an additional fiscal note
because of the inclusion of the alternative governance structures of
"Union School Associations". Reperesentative Edgecomb says the basis
for any additional cost is not clear to him, as the same local boards
that the Minority Report advocates may also exist in the framework of
the Majority Report.

Senator Damon and Dick Spencer then presented Senator Damon's proposed
amendment to allow "Regional School Unions" based upon the model
proposed in MDI's reorganization plan as an added alternative to the
"Regional School Units" already delineated in LD 1932.

(See: http://mdischools.net/20080130_Draft_Senate_Floor_Amendment.pdf )

Spencer explained that the amendment was designed as a "bolt-on" to LD
1932 and, because of that, the language was deliberately parallel.
The amendment allows the new entity of a Regional School Union to
assume central delineated "core" regional administrative functions
while local school committees may carry on all other present functions
as "local education units."  In this respect, the structure is a close
complement to the Majority Report's "stretched RSU" with the
difference being that, outside of the core administrative
responsibilities and any others assigned to the Union through the
reorganization plan, authority remains with the local education units.

This, Spencer says, eliminates essentially all the problems of
cost-shifting between municipalities that are otherwise inherent to
the Majority Report which makes it more attractive in many areas for
districts to operate together.

Caucus Chair Representative Saviello asked if two or more existing
School Administrative Units could join to form Regional School Unions.
 Spencer said the amendment allows that and also allows SADs to join
under a single administration also with municipal districts and CSDs.

Representative Johnson said that for his area in Greenville he was
still concerned about having too large a minimum size and the too
short a timeline for reorganization.  Spencer said that this amendment
was designed just to deal with the alternative governance structure
and that other amendments to the law regarding minimum size, timeline,
penalties, etc. could be made separately, if the legislature wished.

While the amendment provides for each local education unit to remain
the local employer, some Caucus members also were concerned about the
potential for increased costs that could result from regional
collective bargaining agreements.  Spencer said that this could be
seen as a trade-off of interests and efficiency, but that the
amendment could be arranged either way if the legislative intention
were determined to have separate local bargaining units.

In response, the Caucus seemed interested.  Representative Johnson
said the amendment "certainly added value."

Among Caucus members, there is certainly still a strong sentiment
favoring general repeal. But there also seems to be recognition that
it is worthwhile to improve the law in meaningful ways and that this
amendment could be useful to many areas beyond MDI.

It is still not clear when LD 1932 will be on the Senate calendar.  At
this time it looks like it may not reach the floor until the week
after next.