<div id="1elx" class="ArwC7c ckChnd">
<p>21 February 2008</p>To Maine
State Legislators:
<p>Attached is 'Why Regional Unions Work', a fact sheet
outlining the advantages of Regional School Unions, the school reorganization
option allowed under the Damon amendment to LD 1932. <br>
<br>
The same information sheet is available on the web at:<br>
<a href="http://mdischools.net/Why_Regional_Unions_work.htm" target="_blank">http://mdischools.net/Why_Regional_Unions_work.htm</a></p>
<p>or, in printable form:<br>
<a href="http://mdischools.net/Why_Regional_Unions_work.pdf" target="_blank">http://mdischools.net/Why_Regional_Unions_work.pdf</a><br>
<br>
We, the undersigned, having many deep concerns and strong reservations about
the present school reorganization law, nevertheless strongly encourage
legislators to preserve in LD 1932 the option of Regional School Unions as well
as any others which may be beneficial to Maine students. Many reorganizing
districts may find significant practical benefits from alternative associations
to those currently mandated by the law.</p>
<p>Sincerely yours,</p>
<ul><li>Brian Hubbell, School Committee and RPC Vice-chair, Bar
Harbor</li><li>Ernie Easter, MLTI Teacher Leader, New
Sweden</li><li>Dexter Bellows, Selectboard Chair, Town of Hancock</li><li>Bill Ferm, RPC facilitator, Mount Desert</li><li>Judith Jones, Hope</li><li>Nancy Easter-Hudak, New Sweden</li><li>Liz Erickson, School Committee, Tremont </li>
<li><span>Scott K. Porter, Maine Small Schools Coalition, Machias</span></li><li><span>Mary Wallace, MDI HS,
Lamoine</span></li><li>Richard Barter, Karen Barter, Patrick Barter, Town of Mount Desert.</li><li>Margaret T. Jeffery, School Committee, Bar
Harbor</li><li>Ronald Jenkins, Superintendent, Maine Indian Education</li><li>Barry McLaughlin, Superintendent Union 107, Woodland,
Cooper, Grand<span> </span>Lake Stream, Meddybemps, Princeton, Talmadge, and Waite</li><li>Kathy Gilpatrick, Gouldsboro</li><li>George Crawford, Teacher, Jonesboro Elementary School</li><li>Amy Young, School Committee, Southwest Harbor</li>
<li>Gail Marshall, School Board and RPC Chair, Mount Desert</li><li>Henri Gignoux, RPC representative, Steuben</li><li>Elisa Hurley, Bar Harbor</li><li><span>Alene Staley, Lisbon</span></li><li><span>Dick Atlee, Southwest
Harbor</span></li><li>Ellen and Harry Brawley, Mount Desert</li><li>Amanda Dyer, Bar Harbor Teachers' Association</li><li>Judy Sproule, School Board, Trenton</li><li><span>Ruth A. Eveland, Town
Council Chair, Bar Harbor</span></li><li><span>Tom Burton, School
Committee Chair, Bar Harbor</span></li><li>Harold Casey, Hancock
County Technical
Center, Ellsworth</li><li>Gisele Faucher, Madawaska Education Association</li><li>Susan Covino Buell, Southwest Harbor</li><li>Tammy Tripler, School Board chair and RPC representative, Swan's
Island.</li><li>Gary C. Hunt, Esq., Attorney at Law, Ellsworth</li><li>John Sharood, Director, SAD 71, Kennebunk</li><li>Kimberly Steinbarger, School Committee and RPC representative,
Beech Hill School,
Otis </li><li>Audrey Carter, RPC representative, Surry </li><li>Julia Schloss, Town Councilor, Bar Harbor </li><li>Eric Henry, School Committee, Southwest Harbor</li><li><span><font face="Arial" size="2">Omar Norton, Eastport</font></span></li>
<li>Gordon Donaldson, University
of Maine</li></ul>----------------------------------------------------------------------------<br><br><div>
<p style="text-align: center;" align="center"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Option of Regional
Unions will allow more extensive school reorganization</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Many
school Reorganization Planning Committees are finding that local expenses in
reorganized districts will be higher than the local cost of not reorganizing --
even after adding in penalties for non-compliance. These higher costs may
result from the additional costs of uniform regional pay scales and cost-shifts
between municipalities that are beyond remedy by regional cost-sharing.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Voters
in these towns will vote down reorganization plans.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">As
a result, fewer reorganized districts will be formed and Maine will end up with
more than 80 regional school administrations. State and local taxpayers
will miss opportunities for more efficient schools and cost savings. Voters
will be angry at the State about the resulting penalties. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Regional
Unions provide an alternative vehicle for some districts to achieve regional
efficiencies without incurring prohibitive additional local expenses. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">According
to education policy analyst David Silvernail, the costs of governance and
administration of existing school unions are not statistically distinguishable
from those in SADs administering schools in towns of similar size and
valuation. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Through
Regional Unions, the Damon amendment to LD 1932 allows more coherent regional
administration, more coordinated curricula, more common bargaining units, and
more overall collaborative cooperation, than will otherwise be possible –
exactly the kind of administrative consolidation many have said was the
original purpose of this entire effort.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In
Regional Unions, citizens retain their close local connection and budgetary
oversight of their schools while still realizing the education benefits which
result from coordinated regional cooperation. The State saves no less
money than it would otherwise from reorganization and the schools are improved.</span></p>
<p><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Local
taxpayers and the State both will benefit from the greater scope and success of
school reorganization made possible through the Damon amendment.</span></i></p><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Don't
Regional Unions cost more than other school governance models?</span></b>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The
Department of Education <a href="http://mdischools.net/20080214_DoE_Table.pdf" target="_blank">recently
has suggested</a> that Union governance, on average, costs at least $1000 more
annually per pupil than other forms of school governance.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">That
statistic is categorically misapplied.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Regional
Unions provide a vehicle for municipal school units <a href="http://mdischools.net/20070402_Donaldson_SchoolUnions.pdf" target="_blank">to <i>reduce</i></a>
administrative expenses by sharing them with other municipalities. So, by
definition, Unions are administratively at least as efficient as municipal
school districts and almost certainly substantially <i>more efficient</i> than
their member municipalities would be if they operated independently.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Like
standard Reorganized School Units, Regional Unions are governed by the same
elected citizens who serve on local boards. Only the same trivial
expenses of governance are incurred under either model.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In
similarly-sized systems serving similarly-valued municipalities, <a href="http://mainegov-images.informe.org/education/data/indicators/07rcf20percent.pdf" target="_blank">administration
costs are indistinguishable</a> between Unions and other governance
structures. Compare system administration costs in Bar Harbor's Union 98
school with those of consolidated districts in towns of similar size with
similar coastal valuations.</span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Bar Harbor</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, Union 98: 4.14%, ($474 per student)<br>
SAD 28, Camden: 4.12%, ($454)<br>SAD 50, Thomaston: 4.89% ($593)<br>SAD 56 in Searsport: 4.33%, ($519)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">David
Silvernail, in a January 8<sup>, </sup>2008 presentation to the Legislature's
Education Committee, reported that <a href="http://mainetalk.org/pipermail/local-maine-schools_mainetalk.org/2008-January/000533.html" target="_blank">no
clean conclusion can be drawn</a> about the relationship between overall
per-pupil cost and governance structure. From below-average to
above-average, the full range of costs is represented in every type of school
administrative system. According to Silvernail, the single greatest predictor
of per-pupil cost is community valuation. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So,
what is shown by the Department's numbers is evidence that Union structures may
more comfortably (and perhaps even more efficiently) serve regions with fewer
people and therefore smaller class sizes and also regions of higher valuation
and less state subsidy where more local money is spent in the classroom on
expanded educational programs.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">To
see where the extra $1000 per pupil is spent in Union schools, compare the
State average for "<a href="http://mainegov-images.informe.org/education/data/indicators/07rcf20pp.pdf" target="_blank">regular
instruction</a>"<span> </span>with this cost center
in the following high performing Union schools:</span></p>
<p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Maine</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> average: $4,119<br>
Bar Harbor</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">: $5,238<br>Boothbay: $5,774<br>Mount</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Desert</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">: $6,383<br>
Palermo</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">: $5,134<br>Veazie: $6,457</span></p>
<p><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> This
is where the money goes in many Union schools: to the essential core of
school business and the very area of education that reorganization is intended
to bolster,<u> not</u> to inefficient regional administration. </span></i></p>
<p><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> The
Damon Amendment will help such districts achieve further administrative savings
without incurring the costs associated with the current law.</span></i></p>
<p><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Doesn't
local control deprive students of educational opportunity?</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.usm.maine.edu/cepare/Reports/IdentifyingHigher.pdf" target="_blank">Evidently
not</a>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Identical
percentages of schools within consolidated School Administrative Districts (42 of
313) and municipalities (46 of 359) are classified as higher performing.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">However,
21% (66 of 313) of the schools in SADs are classified as <u>lower performing</u>,
while only 11% (40 of 359) of municipal schools are.</span></p>
<p><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Students
do better in schools that are closely connected to their communities through
local oversight. Schools without that local connection are more likely to
underperform.</span></i></p>
<p><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">How
are budgets raised and validated in Regional Unions?</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Budgets
will be assembled just as they are currently in unions. Each municipality
will budget, approve, validate, and assess its own share of local expense along
with its portion of the regional budget. Expenses for regional core
functions, as set out by the reorganization plan approved at local referendum,
will be set by the combined local boards and these regional expenses will
become part of each local budget and subject to the same requirements of local
validation.</span></p><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">No
one scrutinizes school budgets more closely than a municipal warrant committee
and local voters at town meeting.</span></i>
<p><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Don't
Union superintendents spend too much of their time in too many local meetings?</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There
is no doubt that Union superintendents frequently are intimately connected with
their schools. Many find this vertical integration to be an efficient way to
stay closely informed on essential administrative issues. Similarly, many
Union schools directly benefit from this contact from superintendents who carry
a unifying educational vision. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Local
issues often are more efficiently resolved at local meetings then they would be
at prolonged regional meetings. So the total time spent directly in local
meetings rather than in meetings with intermediary subcommittees may not be
greater than in consolidated districts.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">(Note
also, that in Regional Unions formed under the Damon amendment, the
superintendent is not required to attend meetings of the local education units,
but may delegate that job to others with administrative credentials, such as a
building principal.)</span></p>
<p><i>Schools that are closely supported through governance and
administrators can achieve greater educational goals more efficiently.</i></p>
<p><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Will
Regional Unions divert state funds for education from areas like Portland that don't
have Unions?</span></b></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">No.
State General Purpose Aid to education is distributed according to the State's
formula for Essential Programs and Services which is regionally altered to
account for local labor markets and relative local property valuation. Subsidies
are not affected by the structure of school governance. The Damon amendment
carries no fiscal impact; it shifts no money in state aid.</span></p>
<p><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">School
expenses above state-determined and state-limited levels of GPA are borne only by
local taxpayers. </span></i></p><p>---------------------------------------------<br></p>
<p>References:</p>
<p>Maine Department of Education, <a href="http://mdischools.net/20080214_DoE_Table.pdf" target="_blank">Handout to legislators</a>,
February 14, 2008<br>Gordon A. Donaldson, Jr., <a href="http://mdischools.net/20070402_Donaldson_SchoolUnions.pdf" target="_blank">School Unions
in Maine: A Viable Alternative</a>, April 2, 2007<br>Department of Education, <a href="http://mainegov-images.informe.org/education/data/indicators/07rcf20percent.pdf" target="_blank">2006-07
Financial Indicators for School Administrative Units -- percentages</a><br>Brian Hubbell, <a href="http://mainetalk.org/pipermail/local-maine-schools_mainetalk.org/2008-January/000533.html" target="_blank">Notes
from Education Committee work session</a>, January 8, 2008<br>Department of Education, <a href="http://mainegov-images.informe.org/education/data/indicators/07rcf20pp.pdf" target="_blank">2006-07
Financial Indicators for School Administrative Units – per-pupil expenditure
amounts</a><br>David L. Silvernail; <a href="http://www.usm.maine.edu/cepare/Reports/IdentifyingHigher.pdf" target="_blank">The
Identification of Higher and Lower Performing Maine Schools</a>, School Profiles
and Characteristics; Maine Education Policy Research Institute; May 2007</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">--------------------<br></span></p><a href="http://mdischools.net/" target="_blank">MDIschools.net</a>,
2/19/2008<br>Contact: Brian Hubbell, <a href="mailto:sparkflashgap@gmail.com" target="_blank">mailto:sparkflashgap@gmail.com</a><i> </i>
</div>
</div>