[Local-Maine-Schools] Skip Greenlaw: Re: LD2174

[Dick Atlee]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: LD2174
Date: 	Wed, 5 Mar 2008 14:00:12 -0500
From: 	skipgreenlaw <skipg at hypernet.com>

Hello everyone,

I am writing to add some information to what Dick reported below in his
e-mail.  I talked with Dale Douglass about two hours ago.  He told me
that the school boards, superintendents, teachers, principals, and
special education associations met with our favorite
Commissioner yesterday and convinced her to withdraw LD 2174.  Thank you
association leaders for bringing some reality to the Commissioner on
behalf of an already overloaded school agenda.

If this bill surfaces again, please make sure to tell our Commissioner
that the legislative education committee promised last June, after the
school consolidation fiasco, that they would not ask local school
committees and superintendents to bear the burden of any more
legislative requirements without paying for them.  Dale says that the
legislators have already forgotten about that promise.  Perhaps we need
to elect some legislators who have long term memory, not short term
memory loss.

It seems to me that the educational bureaucracy in this administration
is completely out of touch with reality.  They want to consolidate
administrative positions, but they want to keep layering requirement
after requirement on the desks of our superintendents.  Does anyone
remember assessments and what a fiasco and waste of time that turned out
to be?  What ever happened to learning results?  Are curriculum
requirements for graduation from high school going to replace the
learning results?  Then, what is next?  We need to tell the Commissioner
and our legislators that enough is enough. We are not going to support
anymore new initiatives until we resolve the issues around consolidation
or repeal the law.  My sense is that we have collectively lost a whole
year in terms of any education advances for our students while we tried
to work through a law, which neither the governor, nor the department,
or the legislature understood what they were asking us to do.

Dale- Would you be so kind to forward this e-mail to the leaders of the
five associations who met with the commissioner yesterday and thank them 
for their wisdom and willingness to take
a stand.  Also please ask them to resist on our behalf and for our
students any more so-called reform measures while this administration
remains in office so that we can be about the business of educating our
students.

Sincerely,
Skip Greenlaw

     ----- Original Message -----
     *From:* RICHARD GOULD <mailto:perf3170rag at verizon.net>

   Hi
     I have heard from many of you that LD 2174 has been withdrawn.  This
     is to let you know that the Ed committee is having a worksession on
     this on Thursday(I think this is the day).
     Some members want to work on having a stakeholders group work over
     the summer to draft a bill that would be presented next year.  I
     have learned that almost everything comes back sooner or later.
     Dick