Maine proposal requires students apply to college

Bangor Daily News, April 28, 2007

(excerpt) The bill in Maine’s Legislature is simple — only 43 words — and has strong sponsorship. House Speaker Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, brings credibility on the issue as a former teacher. The Education Committee, of which Cummings previously was chairman, voted unanimously to recommend passage, and the House of Representatives passed it without debate. It won initial Senate approval Thursday and awaits final votes in both chambers.

The idea also has drawn support from Gov. John Baldacci, who like other state officials has recognized that Maine lags behind other states in college graduation rates.

"I think the idea fits in with our efforts for all students to be prepared for college, career and citizenship," Baldacci said. "Hopefully, it will increase aspirations and give more students the opportunity to make college a choice.

Bangor: School officials at odds over No Child report

Bangor Daily News, April 27, 2007

(excerpt) The Maine Department of Education on Thursday released its annual list of high school academic progress as determined by results of the 2006 SAT given to all juniors in the state.

Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said the results showed some areas of success but also pointed out the need for action on high school reform.

School officials in Bangor, however, called the results "misleading" and stressed that what needs to be reformed are parts of NCLB.

Despite the fact that as a school, Bangor High School students overall outperformed their peers on a statewide basis — ranking sixth in the state in terms of their average mathematics, critical reading and writing scores, the school has for the first time been placed on the list of 51 schools identified as "continuous improvement priority schools," or CIPS.

In the first year that a school does not show adequate yearly progress under NCLB, the school is placed on "monitor" status. If it does not meet the target a second year in a row, it goes to "Continuous Improvement Priority School" status.

Irked board passes $28.5M school budget

Kennebec Journal, April 26, 2007

(excerpt) Board member Susan Campbell, who joined member Gregg Bernstein in voting against the budget, expressed frustration with the City Council and state Legislature for having unrealistic budget expectations.

She said councilors expect schools to fully fund athletics without exceeding spending guidelines in the Essential Programs and Services funding model. But that state funding model only allocates funds to pay for about 10 percent of what schools actually spend on athletics.

And it's student academic achievement, Campbell suggested, that gets sacrificed as athletic programs, which she said she supports, get funding that otherwise would fund academics.

"We either go to the City Council with what we need or I'm not supporting the budget." Campbell said. "The City Council doesn't get it. They don't understand (Essential Programs and Services). And at this point I'm not sure the Legislature does either."

SAD 9 acts to share school business post

Morning Sentinel, April 26, 2007

(excerpt) School Administrative District 9 directors Tuesday night approved a proposal to share a financial position with SAD 58 starting with the new fiscal year. Under the plan, Anne Stinchfield, currently SAD 58's business manager, will spend three days a week with SAD 9 and two with SAD 58.

SAD 58 directors have not yet acted on the proposal, but will be meeting Thursday night at Mt. Abram High School in Salem. If it passes muster with that board, Stinchfield will handle accounts payable for SAD 9, taking over duties done by Linda Dwinal.

Dwinal has worked for SAD 9 for 21 years but is retiring this year.

SAD 9 Superintendent Michael Cormier said the plan would save SAD 9 $24,283. Technology and spinning off some of the duties to others has made the change possible, he said.

SAD 54 board approves proposed $31 million budget

Morning Sentinel, April 20, 2007

(excerpt) School Board Chairman Pat Elwell said board members approved the budget Thursday with one condition — that if school funding comes in significantly less than estimated the board would revisit it. Elwell said the board has taken a more conservative stance on spending this year because members realize that the ramp-up in state education funding over the past several years is nearing an end.

Schools begin consolidation talks

Kennebec Journal, April 15, 2007

(excerpt) "We don't know what the actual numbers will be," Mitchell said. "Right now, we're hearing 2,500. But in three to five years, will that be the number to plan for? What will happen down the road? We need to ask those questions and have an open dialogue."

Union 42 Chairwoman Holly Stevenson said the true purpose of the consolidation talks among neighboring districts "is to determine if these are realistic mergers."

"Our job is to figure out who makes the most sense for us to try to consolidate with, and it gets pretty sticky pretty fast because you realize there's a great economic factor involved," Stevenson said.

As an example, teachers' salaries are not uniform across the various towns. Therefore, if two schools join together -- one of which has lower teacher salaries -- does that town have to bring its teachers' pay up to match the other schools in the district? Or, will salaries and contracts remain at a certain point for an amount of time after the school districts consolidate, with new contracts negotiated after consolidation?

Those, Stevenson said, are the types of questions the group is wrestling with.

"We did touch on different things the state could do that wouldn't affect our schools as negatively as a consolidation, such as a statewide teacher salary or curriculum," she said.

Aside from all the variables, the school officials said they're simply trying to wrap their arms around all of the different options -- consolidation or not -- and then present that information to their communities.

Transparency in school budgeting a good thing

Portland Press Herald, April 12, 2007

(excerpt) The plan, still taking its final form, calls for 80 Regional School Units of about 2,500 students each. RSUs in Maine's far-flung quarters would be allowed to have fewer kids per unit.

Under the revised approach, school districts would be allowed to create local advisory committees, something that might be attractive in a rural region where the district encompasses 10 or 15 towns.

If a school district's board of directors agreed, local advisory boards could be given the authority for approving local school budgets, an approach similar to that used in Maine's school unions.

The new blueprint also calls for more transparency -- and therefore accountability -- in the school budgeting process. Budget validation by voters isn't new in Maine. Several dozen of Maine's existing 290 school units already do it.

But in the latest version of school reform, voting on budgets would be the rule, at least at first. The new, standardized RSU budgets would all go out for voter approval in fiscal year 2009, the first year of the new system.

After FY 2010 or FY 2011, lawmakers would review the need for annual budget referendums.

Skowhegan to survey its students

Kennebec Journal, April 13, 2007

(excerpt) Waging a battle against teen crime begins with understanding the needs of the kids themselves, according to a steering committee formed to address the issue.

With that focus in mind, the committee has planned an anonymous survey of students in grades 6, 8, and 11 to help determine the strengths the town's young people need to have in order to thrive, said chairman Peter G. Drever Jr. of Norridgewock.

The survey is just the beginning of a planned response to a spike in teen crime in the Skowhegan area last fall, which included daytime armed robberies, vandalism of municipal equipment and acid bombs detonated in a local Wal-Mart. The committee is an outgrowth of a Jan. 13 forum.

at the Readiness Center, where nearly 300 people turned out to search for solutions to teen crime.

Drever, a Lutheran pastor trained in psychology, said the survey is the first step in a long process and will provide the committee with an in-depth analysis of teens and their views of the future.

The survey is being conducted through Minnesota-based Search Institute, a nonprofit organization committed to helping create healthy communities for young people, Drever said. Funding for the survey was obtained through grants and the work of several area agencies.

Drever said the survey asks teens for a view of their life of life through their family, community, education and values. With those responses, Search Institute identifies where the community and teens stand in regard to meeting 40 elements of healthy development.

Panel to hear charter school proposal today

Portland Press Herald, April 13, 2007

(excerpt) A proposal that would allow up to 20 charter school programs at existing schools in the next decade will go before the Legislature's Education and Cultural Affairs Committee today.

Sponsored by Rep. Boyd Marley, D-Portland, the measure is one of five bills to be heard at 11 a.m. in Room 202 at the Cross State Office Building in Augusta that would create options for public school students. Other bills include proposals to expand alternative education programs.

While not as far-reaching as earlier unsuccessful charter school proposals in the Legislature, Marley's measure would create theme-based charter programs within existing schools in which students could choose to enroll. Marley, a public school special education teacher, said his idea grew out of his concern for students who aren't thriving in conventional programs.

His measure would establish charter programs based on a particular discipline, such as science, mathematics or the arts. He said the idea is to try to engage students by teaching them what most interests them.

Marley said his proposal would encourage programs based on experiential, or hands-on, learning, a method used at the Casco Bay High School in Portland.

Wilhelm cries 'foul' on state education aid in letter to Baldacci

Times Record, April 12, 2007

(excerpt) When schools were told in late March that "Scenario B" numbers for education funding should be used to determine aid to education, the subsidy provided under LD 1953 was missing.

The numbers "appear to totally disregard legislation passed last year that provided special education subsidy for towns within School Administrative Districts that were denied that subsidy under the (Essential Programs and Services) formula but promised it by LD 1," Wilhelm writes. "MSAD No. 75 would receive $1 million less than it was scheduled to receive under the original phase-in plan. This is the largest single decrease in state support in the state."

Wilhelm writes that the district and the town of Harpswell spent two years negotiating cost-sharing and withdrawal as a result of funding inequities, and LD 1953 was a way to correct the situation.

"We cry foul," Wilhelm writes. "To ignore the will of the Legislature and unilaterally disregard LD 1953 is beyond our comprehension."

State proposes cutting sports funding

Bangor Daily News, April 13, 2007

(excerpt) State funding for school sports and activities such as band and drama clubs is on the chopping block as part of the revised budget proposal outlined last week by the Baldacci administration to help bridge a $74 million three-year shortfall.

Funding for the programs would end in the 2008-09 school year.

"Under the Essential Programs and Services program someone has determined that sports are not essential, mock trial is not essential," Brewer Superintendent Daniel Lee told his school board Monday. "Is there a school in Maine that’s going to eliminate basketball?" he asked. "We’re going to have to pick that [cost] up on the local side."

The proposed cuts in funding for co-curricular and extracurricular activities are designed to save the state $5.4 million over the 2007-09 biennial budget. Co-curricular activities include chess clubs, yearbook, mock trial and other programs. Extracurricular activities are mainly sports.

Stop the Runaway Train

Ellsworth American, April 11, 2007

(excerpt) Some weeks ago, we urged in these columns that the Legislature give consideration to a plan, advanced by teacher and former legislator Stephen L. Bowen, that has the potential for substantial monetary savings through the creation of Education Service Districts, an approach that already is proving its worth in several other states. The plan would involve none of the upheaval that is part and parcel of the Governor’s deeply flawed approach.

But right now, the Legislature, intimidated by the need to achieve a balanced budget, is running scared. The Appropriations Committee, which shouldn’t even be dealing with education matters, is scurrying around trying to assemble a proposal calling for no more than 80 school districts — each with at least 2,500 students unless an exception is made — and, presumably, a like number of superintendents. All of this is going to happen in a period of three or four months, with little or no public involvement. Meanwhile, superintendents, teachers and school boards remain on edge with little idea what the future holds in store for them or their school systems.

Change can be a good thing, but bigger is not always better. And so far, the school restructuring debate in Augusta is being driven far more by short-term financial considerations than by long-term educational implications. As a first step, the Appropriations Committee should return the budget to the Governor with instructions that he cover any shortfall by making cuts to real, existing programs, not by booking imaginary savings that might or might not be attainable.

Separating the school restructuring issue from the budget deliberations would allow time to develop — with appropriate public input — a well-reasoned and sound proposal to streamline school administration in Maine while maintaining the quality educational programs that already are being provided in most of our schools.

More schools have classes for 4-year-olds

Kennebec Journal, April 10, 2007

(excerpt) Waterville School Superintendent Eric Haley said that last fall five entering kindergarten students failed a book-handling test.

"They couldn't tell you whether the book was right side up or upside down," Haley said.

Haley said other statistics on his latest kindergarten class aren't much better: only 23 percent of the 120 students assessed, for instance, passed a pre-literacy skills assessment.

Those disturbing results, Haley said, are a clear indication that young children are not getting the attention and stimulation they need to develop basic learning skills.

Haley and others concerned about child development point to the glaring shortage of quality child care as the leading reason for this problem.

That is one reason he is a vocal advocate for investing more money in the child-care industry.

It also is the reason he is a strong supporter of 4-year-old programs.

Waterville has a Head Start 4-year-old class run by Kennebec Valley Community Action Program (KVCAP) at George J. Mitchell School.

It is one of 109 pre-school programs around the state, more than twice the number in place as recently as 2000.

Waterville school board cuts budget

Morning Sentinel, April 10, 2007

(excerpt) Schools Superintendent Eric L. Haley told the School Board that he learned Monday from the state that Waterville schools will receive less than the estimated $975,000 in state aid.

So, while he brought a list of proposed $388,654 in cuts to the board meeting, he said the schools may lose $75,900 more.

The School Board is scheduled to meet with city councilors at 7 tonight in the council chambers to discuss budget issues.

While Haley said he had expected the board to take a first vote on the proposed budget Monday, he recommended waiting until a future meeting because the numbers are changing.

Board member Joan Phillips-Sandy said that, while the board does not have solid numbers to work with, at some point it will have to vote on a proposed school budget.

"Is the state definitely saying that this (amount of funding) is it?" she asked.

"No, the state can change their mind at any time," Haley replied.

SAD 9 weighs budget plans

Kennebec Journal, April 10, 2007

(excerpt) Copies of the SAD 9 budget draft, which will include the anticipation of additional state aid, will be distributed at the school board's 7 p.m. meeting at Mt. Blue High School.

The district is in line tentatively to receive an additional $800,000, or a total of $14,638,639, in state subsidy for 2007-08 under Gov. Baldacci's recommended funding, or a little over $700,000, for a total of $14,537,239, under a second plan based on revisions to the state funding formula.

Superintendent Michael Cormier said the revenue projections are "shaky at best," but added the administration and board needed to begin the public budget process.

Traditionally, directors have spent several meetings evaluating the spending plan before adopting their own recommended budget. The process has been slowed this year because of the delay in funding figures from the state.

Previously, SAD 9 has timed its deliberations to piggyback its budget referendum with statewide primary voting in June. This year's balloting, on June 12, will include bond packages.

"I don't know if the board can do it (get it ready for voting) in that amount of time," Cormier said.

80 school units goal of panel

Bangor Daily News, April 10, 2007

(excerpt) A special legislative subcommittee has recommended that education delivery be consolidated into a maximum of 80 school units with at least 2,500 students each where possible.

The four-member subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee provided the full committee with its recommendations during a work session Monday. The proposal still will need to pass the muster of the committee as well as the entire Legislature before it is adopted into law. The Appropriations Committee will continue to work on the proposal in the coming weeks.

"This still has a long way to go," acknowledged the subcommittee’s chairman, Rep. Emily Ann Cain, D-Orono.

Although the plan represents a major change from Gov. John Baldacci’s proposal to consolidate schools into 26 districts, it still provides for the $36.5 million in savings in fiscal year 2008-09 that the governor’s plan called for. The proposal also adheres to the governor’s mandate that the new school districts be up and running by July 1, 2008.

The state now has 290 school units managed by 190 school superintendents. Between state and local funding, approximately $2 billion a year is spent on pre-kindergarten-to-grade-12 education.

Cain explained that while the proposal would allow the Department of Education to suggest a number of model districts, it would be up to the local communities to decide how they want to consolidate management and how large a district they want to establish. She said her panel purposely wanted to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach.

"In this plan there will be models that will be fewer than the 2,500, particularly in the rural areas," she said.

Lawmakers say teachers' jobs secure

Portland Press Herald, April 7, 2007

(excerpt) Legislators who are trying to cut the cost of education in Maine said on Friday that teachers should not fear losing their jobs to school consolidation.

Members of the subcommittee that is looking for ways to cut school administration costs made that promise while finalizing details of their plan. They are scheduled to outline their recommendations to the Legislature's Appropriations Committee on Monday.

In a discussion with representatives of the Maine Education Association, a teachers' union, subcommittee members said teachers and most other school employees who don't work in administration can expect to keep their jobs, salaries, benefits and union representation after their school systems become parts of consolidated school districts.

"Teachers' contracts would go with them to the new district," said subcommittee member Sen. Karl Turner, R-Cumberland. "We want this to cause as little discomfort as possible for school employees, once you get below the administration level."

In Freeport, a later start for schools?

Portland Press Herald, April 9, 2007

(excerpt) All Freeport schools would open their doors an hour later on Wednesdays this fall under a proposal before the School Committee. The late-start plan is designed to give teachers time to sharpen their teaching skills and identify ways to improve the curriculum.

However, district officials say they realize the schedule change may pose difficulties for families, so they want parents to tell them what's needed to make the change work. Examples might include before-school programs.

The schedule change will depend on how many people in the 1,200-student school district might be inconvenienced, said Superintendent Elaine Tomaszewski. "We're waiting to see the impact," she said. "Will it be on 10 children or 100 children? That could make a big difference."

The board is scheduled to vote then on the calendar for the 2007-2008 school year, which would include the later start time. However, committee Chairman Christopher Leighton said Friday that the board may vote at a later meeting to allow more time for public comment.

"I think we might give it another run to let the public talk about it, because it's not our intention to make life hard for people," he said. "We've got to figure out a way to help them."

Leighton and other school officials said the late start would benefit schools. Tomaszewski said the extra time will enable teachers to do such things as analyze test data to help them improve both course content and their teaching skills.

"This has such a benefit to education - it's hard to pass up," Leighton said.

School funds eyed to bridge budget gap

Bangor Daily News, April 7, 2007

(excerpt) The Baldacci administration outlined how it would tap school aid to help bridge a $74 million three-year budget gap Friday, while tax committee panelists listened to wide-ranging critiques of sales tax expansions they have been reviewing.

Administration officials said a key element of the revised budget proposal would involve a fiscal 2008 reduction of $17 million in the planned increase in contributions toward local education costs.

Democratic Rep. Emily Cain of Orono worried that failing to proceed with what is known as a ramp-up in school aid to 55 percent of local costs would "set ourselves up for disgrace," but administration officials sought to reassure her and other skeptics that the reduction would be only in that year and that the state would still meet its 55 percent target in fiscal 2009, as planned.

Initial reaction within the Appropriations Committee was muted.

Houlton: SAD 29 extends pre-K

Bangor Daily News, April 6, 2007

(excerpts) Pre-kindergarten pupils are like "little sponges," anxious to absorb all of the information they can hold, said teacher Amanda Howe.

Now, officials in SAD 29 will take advantage of her analogy and the research behind it by extending the district’s pre-kindergarten program.

During a meeting earlier this week, the school board voted to approve a motion to modify the district’s program. Instead of four days a week, pupils will be in the classroom five days a week next year.

...

"We need more time in the course of a day to get this done," Howe said. "We feel that an extra day would give us more time to help our children develop appropriate language and literacy skills, and we feel it would be more beneficial for preparing these students for kindergarten."

Howe said that teachers gauged how parents would feel about extending the pre-kindergarten week by sending out a survey. A vast majority of parents who responded said that they believed that a five-day week would be beneficial to their child’s education.

Pittsfield: SAD 53 weighs possibilities for $600,000 budget increase

Bangor Daily News, April 5, 2007

(excerpt) Detroit will pick up a larger percentage of the overall SAD 53 budget this year because of the town’s large increase in valuation, Superintendent Michael Gallagher told board members this week.

Last year, Burnham’s share increased after its valuation jumped from $56 million to $73.25 million. This year, Detroit’s valuation went from $33.3 million to almost $38 million, which represents a 13.79 percent increase.

Pittsfield’s share of the budget would drop by about 3 percent. With a valuation of $193 million, Pittsfield still will pay the lion’s share of the tax burden, at about $2.2 million.

The district’s budget committee has created two scenarios, both based on a $10.9 million budget, which is about $600,000 higher than this year’s.

The options are based on local tax rate expectations, and final figures have not been released by the state.

One option would increase the local tax assessment by just $46,000, which would decrease the budget by 2.15 percent. The second option would jump the assessment $83,000, and reflect a budget increase of 3.18 percent.

In creating the budget, budget committee Chairman Barbara Pomeroy said that contract costs rise $800,000, necessitating a cut of $200,000 in proposed expenditures this year.

School consolidation would raise local taxes

Bar Harbor Times, April 6, 2007

(excerpt) Local property taxes would go up 32 percent under a statewide school consolidation plan being considered by the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee, Town Manager Dana Reed and Conners-Emerson School Principal Barbara Neilly told the Town Council Tuesday night.

“We would be exporting our tax dollars off island to support schools in other parts of the region,” Mr. Reed said.

At the same time, Conners-Emerson would have to cut up to 14 positions and eliminate interscholastic sports and other programs, according to Ms. Neilly.

“We have an excellent school system here because the community understands the importance of education to the quality of life on the island,” said Paul Murphy, a member of the Conners-Emerson School board and chair of the MDI High School board.

“If any forced consolidation comes upon us, the level of excellence we have will no longer be available. We ask you (the council) to join us in working to keep our schools in the sustaining arms of the community.”

The council voted unanimously to endorse the School Union 98 board’s opposition to school consolidation proposals by the governor and some lawmakers. Under those plans, towns would no longer have any control over their local schools and regional advisory boards would replace individual school boards.

School plan ponders a regional future

Kennebec Journal, April 5, 2007

(excerpt) School and Budget Committee members talked Tuesday evening about how many worn-out windows $51,000 would replace at Vassalboro Community School.

Not all of them, they decided.

They also talked about whether to buy a new bus next year, after not updating the fleet for two years and with the state's generously applied road salt eating away at frames and brake lines.

Then, Budget Committee members started asking: Why bother including money in the 2007-08 budget to maintain the building or the buses?

If the Legislature approves the proposed statewide educational reorganization, by next year Vassalboro's school building and buses would be owned by the new regional entity, not by the town.

In that event, the new regional board -- on which Vassalboro would be unlikely to be a major player -- would decide which buildings to fix and how many buses to buy.

School Committee member Barry Bernier said the committees ought to act as though they are responsible for next year. The students will still need the school, whoever owns it. But Budget Committee member Philip Haines said the regional board would have authority to move students around, too.

Revised schools plan would require $150K more in taxes

Kennebec Journal, April 5, 2007

(excerpt) Property taxpayers would be asked for about $150,000 more in taxes and a high school teaching position would be cut as part of proposed revisions to the school budget to make up for less-than-anticipated state aid.

School officials have also upped how much they're willing to take from the schools' reserve account by about $200,000 to offset expenses, all in an effort to fill a more than $700,000 gap between what local officials expected to get from the state and what the state expects to give.

However, despite the drive to fill that hole in the budget at least one new item has been put into the budget. About $11,000 to start a high school girls lacrosse team as a club sport was put in the budget. The lacrosse team funding would take the place of a previously proposed purchase of a piece of equipment to lift exercise mats, which would have cost about the same amount, according to Superintendent Cornelia Brown.

With the changes, which won approval in a straw vote of the Board of Education on Wednesday, the city's schools would be between $20,000 and $30,000 over what the state's Essential Programs and Services funding model claims is how much a school system of Augusta's size should spend.

"I'm not opposed to going to the City Council and saying 'This is what we believe is a responsible budget,'" said board member William Stokes. "We got less (state funding) that we anticipated, through no fault of our own. We've squeezed the waste and frivolity out of our school budget, and we need $147,000 more in taxes."

Dover-Foxcroft: SAD 68 unsure of 6 teachers' futures

Bangor Daily News, April 5, 2007

(excerpt) In an unusual turn of events Tuesday, SAD 68 directors tabled action on a recommendation to keep six teachers on second-year probationary status because of district financial uncertainty.

The six are winding up their first year of employment.

The move to table action was dictated by financial information the district received from the state, according to SAD 68 Superintendent John Dirnbauer.

"That information was not very good," Dirnbauer said Wednesday.

He said the state had provided school districts with a worst- and best-case scenario regarding increases in subsidy for the 2007-08 school year. For SAD 68 the best case is an increase of $114,000 while the worst case is an increase of $68,000.

The end result could mean some deep cuts including positions, and some of the teachers on the list could be affected, according to Dirnbauer.

Gordon Donaldson: School unions a good option

Bangor Daily News, April 4, 2007

(excerpt) Recent proposals to find education efficiencies through administrative centralization have included an outright ban on one form of school district, the school union. What are school unions and are they deserving of such recommendations?

School unions were Maine’s first form of administrative consolidation. By requiring every community to be part of a school union in 1917, the Maine Legislature achieved a long-sought-after goal: to ensure that every community would be served by a paid superintendent of schools. School unions, however, did not require consolidation of services, merely what we today would call collaboration for central office functions.

Today, Maine has 34 school unions serving 131 towns (by comparison, 269 towns are served by SADs). Most are located in rural parts of the state. In brief, school unions:

• Provide a superintendent and other administrative and instructional services to the school boards and schools of the towns within them;
• Provide direct supervision and management for primary and elementary education and administrative services to contract for secondary education.
• In a number of cases, the superintendent also serves as the superintendent for a community school district which runs the secondary school serving the same communities.
• Offer direct taxpayer oversight of educational programs and budgets through the town meeting system.
• Permit school choice at the secondary level.

A cost analysis that compared 2005-06 expenditures in the 12 school unions in Hancock and Washington counties with 16 like SADs (Rural with enrollment ranges between 400 and 2,200) revealed the following:

• The variations among all 28 districts showed that school unions can be more economical than SADs.
• All the predominantly rural districts studied — SADs and unions alike — spent more than the state average per-pupil expenditure except for SADs enrolling between 700 and 1,600 students. (The range of enrollments ran from 400 to 2,200.)
• If the School Union and SAD expenditures are averaged and then compared: .Average per-pupil expenditures for all costs were in general higher in the School Unions than in SADs; average per-pupil costs for "regular instruction," for "system" administration, for "school" administration, and for transportation were in general higher in school unions than in SADs; average per-pupil costs for "student and staff support," for "career and technical education," and for debt service were in general higher in SADs than in school unions.
• Comparing the percentages of expenditures devoted to different functions: School unions spent a higher percentage of their budgets than SADs for regular instruction, for system administration and for transportation but the same percentage for school administration and facilities management; SADs spent a higher percentage than unions for student and staff support, special education, and debt service.

School reform taking shape

Lewiston Sun-Journal, April 4, 2007

(excerpt) The working version of the school consolidation plan will mandate most school systems with less than 2,500 students merge with neighboring systems.

The plan, developed by a subcommittee of the Legislature's Appropriations Committee, is based on models offered by the Legislature's Education Committee and Gov. John Baldacci. It is a middle ground between the two proposals.

Subcommittee recommendations call for school officials to decide which systems would merge, although the Department of Education will provide models. Schools in "unique geographic situations," such as islands, Native American schools and those in isolated communities will be excluded from the mandate, according to a news release from the department.

The new units will need to be in place by July 1, 2008, the release states. They will be governed like the school administrative districts, using a "one person, one vote" principle, with several methods of representation allowed.

Waterville Schools: Cutting budget difficult

Morning Sentinel, April 3, 2007

(excerpt) School officials on Monday night struggled with a proposed budget for 2007-08 after being asked by City Manager Michael J. Roy to cut another $388,654 from the plan.

The proposed $19.8 million budget represents an 8 percent increase over the current school budget, with fixed costs such as fuel, salaries and insurance to blame for the hike.

Superintendent Eric L. Haley told the Board of Education that the state estimates the school system will get $975,000 in state aid for 2007-08 -- a figure that is less than expected.

"It's not what I hoped it would be, even though it's $975,000," Haley said.

Haley had recently presented the board with three different scenarios, showing what the proposed budget would look like if Waterville received $1.2 million, $1.5 million and $1.7 million from the state. Waterville schools received $1.7 million from the state last year.

Roy said the city wants to cut a half mill, or 50 cents per $1,000 of property valuation, from the current tax rate of $25.90 per $1,000 worth of valuation. In order to do that, schools would have to cut $388,654. He said next year the city will borrow money and it wants to show it has established a pattern of reducing the tax rate each year so as to get a favorable bond rating. Last year, the city reduced the tax rate by one mill.

Study gives teachers barely passing grade in classroom

USA Today, March 31, 2007

(excerpt) The typical child in the USA stands only a one-in-14 chance of having a consistently rich, supportive elementary school experience, say researchers who looked at what happens daily in thousands of classrooms.

The findings, published today in the weekly magazine Science, take teachers to task for spending too much time on basic reading and math skills and not enough on problem-solving, reasoning, science and social studies. They also suggest that U.S. education focuses too much on teacher qualifications and not enough on teachers being engaging and supportive.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, educational researchers spent thousands of hours in more than 2,500 first-, third- and fifth-grade classrooms, tracking kids through elementary school. It is among the largest studies done of U.S. classrooms, producing a detailed look at the typical kid's day.

The researchers found a few bright spots — kids use time well, for one. But they found just as many signs that classrooms can be dull, bleak places where kids don't get a lot of teacher feedback or face time.

Among the findings on what teachers and students did and how they interacted:

• Fifth-graders spent 91.2% of class time in their seats listening to a teacher or working alone, and only 7% working in small groups, which foster social skills and critical thinking. Findings were similar in first and third grades.

• In fifth grade, 62% of instructional time was in literacy or math; only 24% was devoted to social studies or science.

State has controlling interest in schools

Maine Sunday Telegram, March 18, 2007

(excerpt) But there's an audacity to the governor's proposal and the attitude of legislative leaders that wasn't there before.

Let's say for a minute you own shares in a business equal to 45 percent of the stock. Then let's say you invested more and were now controlling 55 percent of the stock.

Wouldn't you think that 55 percent share would entitle you to choose how the company would be run?

As a preemptive move against referendums aimed at capping taxing and/or spending, the Maine Municipal Association came up with a plan to tackle the problem of high property taxes here. The central component was a proposal to raise the state's share of local school costs to 55 percent.

That plan got put on the ballot and was approved by the voters. And while the last Legislature used its authority to modify it to give the state time to come up with the money, progress is being made each year toward the 55 percent goal.

Is it any wonder that now that the state is paying for most of our kids' educations, it wants a greater say in how those services are delivered?

Governments do not give money to other units of government without strings. Ever. If local officials thought they could get the state to give them more money without wanting more control, then they're about to get a very difficult lesson in political science.