[Local-Maine-Schools] Press Release

[Ginny Mott]

Well said, Skip! Thank you for all you did! This phase of trying to make things right may be closing, but the quest is hardly over. Surely, at some point, enough reasonable people in Augusta will realize there is more to the picture and the needs of rural areas must be respected.
Forward,
Ginny Mott
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: skip greenlaw 
  To: skip greenlaw 
  Cc: Local Maine Schools 
  Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 9:16 AM
  Subject: Re: [Local-Maine-Schools] Press Release


  Good morning everyone,

  Yesterday was not our day to be sure, but over 200,000 voters voted for our petition.

  I have just sent out the following press release thanking those who voted for repeal, and trying to communicate some relevant information.

  I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all your efforts, even though we were not successful in repealing the law.  It has been a pleasure working with you, and we need to celebrate all the new friendships we have made.

  This will not be the last of our communications for sure.  We'll continue to try to convince the legislature to make whatever changes which will diminish the impact on our schools.

  With much respect and admiration to all,
  Skip
    From: skip greenlaw 
    To: skipgreenlaw 
    Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 9:03 AM
    Subject: Press Release


    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
    WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2009
    MAINE COALITION TO SAVE SCHOOLS
    CONTACT: SKIP GREENLAW, 460-1260  or 367-2738

    Stonington-  Maine Coalition to Save Schools Chair, Skip Greenlaw, released the following statement on Wednesday, 
    November 4, 2009.

    "We want to thank all Maine people who voted to repeal the school consolidation law on Tuesday.  Even though there were not sufficient votes to repeal the law, at this writing  201,672  Maine voters  expressed their opposition to this law.  Augusta, please take note."

    "We want to thank more than 500 Maine registered voters who collected 61,193 signatures to allow all Maine people the opportunity to vote on this very important education issue."

    "We are disappointed that we did not have $300,000 to tell our side of the story on radio and TV.  It is obvious and disturbing that money is still the mother's milk of politics."

    "We are disappointed that the Governor's surrogates provided Maine residents with inaccurate, unsubstantiated, and incomplete information about savings concerning those school units which consolidated."

    "Recently, I read that there were 23 major studies completed from 1960 to 2003 about school consolidation.  There were savings in only 4 of the 792 school consolidations over that period of time all across the country."

    "In the final analysis, we believe that consolidation will cost Maine taxpayers much more than it will save, particularly after collective bargaining agreements are ratified.  There is great concern that these agreements will result in substantial layoffs of faculty because of significant increase in budgets."

    "We hope that the legislature now understands that one law does not fit all Maine schools.  In smaller Maine school administrative units, there is often only one superintendent, who wears several hats- chief administrative officer, trans-
    portation coordinator, maintenance director, food service director, etc. In those school units, consolidation costs more than it saves."

    "We hope that the legislature will find some way to make adjustments to allow these small units to record savings under the alternative part of the law in the same way that the 42 larger schools, which voted against consolidation, were allowed to do so by the Commissioner."

    "There is a law suit which may go forward in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the penalty provision under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment."

    " Finally, I would like to express my profound appreciation to hundreds of Maine citizens, who understood the gross unfairness and inequity of this law to small schools, mostly in rural Maine, and who worked so hard in their communi-ties to communicate our message.  They all exhibited the infamous "can-do Maine spirit and attitude".  The problem was that there are so many more taxpayers who live in communities which did not experience consolidation, and hence had little understanding of the law or empathy for our point of view."


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