<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18828">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Good morning everyone,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Yesterday was not our day to be sure, but over
200,000 voters voted for our petition.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>I have just sent out the following press release
thanking those who voted for repeal<FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">, <FONT
face=Arial>and trying to communicate some relevant
information.</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>With much respect and admiration to all,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Skip</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"
dir=ltr>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=skipg@midmaine.com href="mailto:skipg@midmaine.com">skip greenlaw</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=skipg@midmaine.com
href="mailto:skipg@midmaine.com">skipgreenlaw</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, November 04, 2009 9:03
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Press Release</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2009</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>MAINE COALITION TO SAVE SCHOOLS</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>CONTACT: SKIP GREENLAW, 460-1260 or
367-2738</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Stonington- Maine Coalition to Save Schools
Chair, Skip Greenlaw, released the following statement on Wednesday,
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>November 4, 2009.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>"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."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>"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."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>"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."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>"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."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>"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."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>"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."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>"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-</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>portation coordinator, maintenance director, food
service director, etc. In those school units, consolidation costs
more than it saves."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>"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."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>"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."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>" 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."</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>