Durham voters to act on funding new school

Sun Journal, October 30, 2007

(excerpt) Besides acting on the state referendum election on Nov. 6, residents here will be asked to issue bonds or notes not to exceed $22,388,247 to build a new $23,786,405 elementary school, of which the state will pay $21,609,709.

Residents will also be asked to spend $778,538 in local tax dollars for a larger gymnasium, as the state will only fund a gym that would be 25 percent smaller than the existing facility. A high-performance schools grant up to $120,000 will also go toward the cost.

In two companion questions, residents will be asked to spend another $628,290 more in local tax dollars for a pitched roof the state will not pay for; plus $769,868, also in local tax dollars, for a state-of-the-art geothermal heating and cooling system using groundwater. The state will pay $246,025 toward the cost of the $1,015,893 system.

Consolidation foes will be at polls

Associated Press, October 30, 2007

(excerpt) The chief organizer of a drive to repeal Maine's new school system consolidation initiative says petition circulators will be out in force at state polling places next week.

Skip Greenlaw of the Maine Coalition to Save Schools, calling the consolidation plan "a threat to our Maine culture," told reporters Tuesday that Gov. John Baldacci, who championed the consolidation plan, and Maine lawmakers who enacted it as part of the state budget are wrong when they claim it will save money.

"The fact is that this law will shift the local cost of education from one community to another community within the proposed regional school unit," Greenlaw said in a prepared statement at a State House news conference.

Greenlaw said the coalition is not against the idea of consolidation, but opposes forced consolidation.

Governor eyes revision of Maine confidentiality law

Associated Press, October 29, 2007

(excerpt) Maine Gov. John Baldacci is considering asking lawmakers to revise a 94-year-old state law that keeps secret the reasons why teachers have lost their certification, barring them from the classroom.

The law was brought to Baldacci´s attention after an Associated Press series about sexual misconduct by teachers in the nation´s schools. Maine was the only state that provided no disciplinary information to the AP.

Baldacci said he has discussed Maine´s confidentiality law, which dates back to 1913, with Education Commissioner Sue Gendron. He said he may submit legislation to change it during the next session, which begins in January.

Consolidation repeal campaign begins

Bangor Daily News, October 29, 2007

(excerpt) The group’s goal is to collect 100,000 signatures, almost double the required amount, before the holiday season in December "to make a statement to the Legislature," Chairman Lawrence "Skip" Greenlaw Jr. said.

"If we work real hard and get enough signatures and talk with enough legislators, then by January, they’ll want to repeal it," he said.

Before Saturday’s event, more than 1,600 petitions had been distributed in all of the state’s 16 counties, Greenlaw said. So far the coalition has volunteers collecting signatures in 211 cities, towns and plantations.

The Legislature is scheduled to reconvene Jan. 2 for its short session when it will deal with bills leftover from the previous session or deemed an "emergency" by leadership.

Lawmakers last week sidelined more than 60 requests — many of which had identical or similar titles — that would make changes in law. Leaders gave assurances that all proposed changes to the school consolidation law will be considered by the Education Committee, according a Bangor Daily News report, but said considering each bill individually would take too much time.

63 school merger bills bundled up

Times Record, October 26, 2007

(excerpt) Democratic leaders Thursday voted not to allow consideration of the 63 individual bills proposed by legislators to amend the school consolidation law, but instead said an all-encompassing proposal will be drafted to address concerns when the Legislature reconvenes in January.

That decision was part of an overall review by the bipartisan Legislative Council of the bills submitted for next session on all topics. They approved around 150 bills out of 575, based on whether the bills were of an emergency or budgetary nature. Legislators next month can appeal to have their bills reconsidered.

Senate President Beth Edmonds, D-Freeport, said she favored an omnibus bill on school consolidation to save time given the 2008 legislative session is short and required to end the third Wednesday in April.

"If we were to let all these bills in, we'd have several public hearings," she said. With one bill, there will be one public hearing before the Education Committee, which will then recommend a package to the full Legislature.

Ernie Clark: Identity lost as schools consolidate

Bangor Daily News, October 26, 2007

(excerpt) One thing certain is that with fewer schools the interscholastic sports world will be condensed in a corresponding way, as a result the opportunities for high school student-athletes will be reduced.

Most bands or service clubs in a school aren’t limited by size, but only five teammates can be on the basketball court in a game at one time. So if 150 or so high schools become 80 or 90 over time, the number of varsity basketball players on the court at one time similarly is cut, particularly in areas where multiple small schools are merged into a few larger unions — think Washington and Aroostook counties, for example.

Perhaps the offshoot of this small chapter of the consolidation grand scheme will be to increase the influence and importance of private sports organizations such as Little League, AAU and ASA as they step in to in fill the role being vacated piecemeal by public school economies of scale.

On the surface it seems hard to believe that club sports might completely replace organized school sports one day, but that industry already has made serious inroads as a complementary piece of the youth sports equation.

And the reality is that change is drawing near, both in the overall framework of the public school system in Maine and in how that change affects the fabric of interscholastic sports in communities both large and small.

What form that latter change takes likely will be determined by the same issues that are driving the original administrative consolidation plan — money and local control.

Education reform means budget cuts for SAD 57

keepMEcurrent, October 24, 2007

(excerpt) “Our bottom line will change,” she [Superintendent Lynda Green] said. The current budget showed a four-tenths of a percent increase over the previous year’s spending plan, a number reached only after teacher and educational technician positions were cut, Green said. “We run on a shoestring as far as personnel and staffing for this office. I don’t know what we can cut.”

The state plan will also lower the amount of state aid dedicated to transportation, Green said, with activity and athletic buses the likely casualty. “I don’t know where else to go,” she said. Athletics and other extracurricular activities will be threatened by additional cuts in funding, Green said. “As a community, they are going to have to decide what they want.”

Though the plan does not mandate consolidation for districts the size of SAD 57, cooperation between districts may be the logical outcome of implementation.

SAD 9: District mulls its test scores

Kennebec Journal, October 26, 2007

(excerpt) Earlier in the meeting, directors debated the merits of the pending governing guidelines for the fledgling Western Mountains Regional School Unit, which is aimed at consolidating SADs 9 and 58, as well as Coplin and Highland plantations.

Director Mark Prentiss of Industry, a member of the unit board's governance sub-committee, said a 25-member board is being recommended to head the new system. It would give each of the 16 communities at least one representative, with Farmington and Wilton having seven and four representatives respectively.

Votes would be tallied on a weighted scale, but with a 60 percent minimum requirement for motions to pass, Farmington and Wilton would not be able to team up to outscore the 14 other towns.

Neil Stinneford of Weld objected to both the size of the board and the 60 percent standard. "Twenty-five is too many," Stinneford said, adding that a 60 percent approval shouldn't be needed to pass routine items such as field trips.

Maine's boat builders try to keep art afloat

USA Today, October 25, 2007

(excerpt) Boat builders say efforts to broaden Maine high school students' educational horizons have hurt the skilled trades.

High schools tend to steer clever students to college; State Education Commissioner Susan Gendron has even proposed requiring every senior to apply to college to be eligible for a diploma.

"There's been a generational shift," says Maddox of Washburn & Doughty. "The emphasis is on white-collar desk jobs, not blue-collar jobs. There's an embarrassment with getting your hands dirty."

Joel Pelletier, a shop teacher at Bucksport High School, says graduates would rather go into logging, which he describes as more dangerous than boat building, or take clerical jobs "with not a lot of skill involved." Many school districts have de-emphasized industrial arts programs, which develop the skills boat builders need. "People have this mentality that everyone has to go to a four-year college, and it's killing the trades," Pelletier says. "I literally have an industry knocking at my door. … We've got to fight the guidance counselors over this."

Bucksport Still Awaits Answers From Department of Education

Ellsworth American, October 25, 2007

(excerpt) A discussion of who will assume Bucksport’s debt — either Bucksport or all four communities — was on the agenda.

As of July 1, 2009, the town will owe $125,000 in local only debt for payments on the Middle School, High School repairs and one last payment on the Miles Lane School. Cost sharing would be based on the valuation of each town, if shared among the towns of the future Regional School Unit 9 (Bucksport, Orland, Verona Island and Prospect).

At the next meeting on Oct. 30, the nine-member Regional Planning Committee will choose one of two options, either to share the debt or to have Bucksport alone pay.

Another question that prompted discussion but no decisions yet was who will own the school buildings.

The law states that all buildings constructed with state and local funds have to be absorbed by the RSU, said Lucarelli. That would include the Jewett School, of which only about 25 percent is used for education. The rest of the building is the Bucksport Community Center.

Local legislators have said the decision is the committee’s.

Union 92 and Bucksport resident David Bridgham said the law allows the planning committee some give and take with school property in what goes to the RSU and what remains owned by the community.

How do SADs 34, 56 teacher salaries add up?

Village Soup, October 25, 2007

(excerpt) A teacher with three years of experience earns $33,393.44 in SAD 34, while in SAD 56, a staffer with equal experience is paid $31,966. Five years out, a SAD 34 teacher will earn $36,146.44, while in SAD 56, the figure is $33,793.

The biggest difference is in compensation levels for veteran staffers, a group Mailloux said "makes up a huge percentage" of the SAD 34 teaching staff.

At 12 years experience, a SAD 34 teacher earns $50,636.44, compared to $40,188 in SAD 56 — a difference of $10,448.44.

The law states it will not displace teachers or students, and MacFarland said cutting teachers has not been discussed as part of the ongoing efforts to create a consolidation plan.

Teacher contracts in SAD 34 will expire Aug. 30, 2010, and in SAD 56, those contracts end Aug. 31 of the same year.

When and if teacher salaries are addressed under an RSU comprised of SADs 34 and 56, Mailloux was skeptical any teachers would be willing to take a pay cut.

"The idea is that whenever those contracts expire at the same time, we are to renegotiate a new contract for everyone," said Mailloux. "I assume teachers in SAD 56 will want to come up to the level of SAD 34 teachers."

Laptops enhancing students' writing, study finds

Portland Press Herald, October 24, 2007

(excerpt) Maine Education Assessment scores indicate that 49 percent of eighth-graders were proficient in 2005 in writing, compared to 29 percent in 2000.

And it wasn't just a function of taking the writing portion of the test using a computer and keyboard. Students who used pen and paper and students who used a computer keyboard showed similar improvements on the test, Silvernail said.

During the same period, math scores were unchanged and science scores rose by 2 points, while reading scores actually dropped 3 points, Silvernail said. Writing showed the biggest improvement: 7 points, from 530 to 537, he said.

Silvernail said it's unrealistic to expect big increases on standardized tests tied to laptops, but writing is the exception.

Laptops make it easier for students to edit their copy and make changes without getting writer's cramp, he said. And it was important, he said, that those skills translated when the test was taken with pen and paper.

January school merger vote unlikely for most districts

State House News Service, October 24, 2007

(excerpt) “There probably will be very few votes in January because of the nature of negotiations of the plans. They’re very complex,” Gendron told the Appropriations Committee last week.

The commissioner has never predicted many school districts would be ready to ask for a citizens vote on their consolidation plans in January, saying early last month that perhaps a dozen to 18 would hold votes then. The real issue is whether the uncertainty over what the Legislature will do when it returns will affect the regional school planning process, since key issues like cost sharing among existing districts are still unresolved.

Under law, all districts have to submit some type of plan to the commissioner by Dec. 1, and those that don’t vote in January are supposed to hold votes in June.

Consolidation complicates issue of teachers' pay

Portland Press Herald, October 21, 2007

(excerpt) Districts looking to merge under the new state consolidation law are facing similar scenarios. Under the law, passed by the Legislature in June, existing labor contracts for teachers will remain in effect until they expire. After that, the individual teacher bargaining units will merge to negotiate a new contract.

Most school and union officials agree that where there are significant differences in wage scales and benefits, the lower wages and benefits will be raised to meet the higher ones. But that has raised concern about where the extra money will come from.

Susan Gendron, commissioner for Maine's Department of Education, said the roughly 80 new regional school districts that are expected to emerge from the existing 290 smaller districts in Maine should be able to meet any pay increases that result.

She said about 150 school districts are now spending some of the money they receive from the state for teachers' salaries on other budget items, such as materials or transportation.

School mergers should be allowed to play out

Portland Press Herald, October 22, 2007

(excerpt) ...when the Legislature convenes in January, members will be considering 62 bills that from their titles aim to rein in, repeal or weaken the law that reduces the number of Maine's school districts from 290 to about 80.

The law aims to cut the total amount spent in the state on school administration. But it is still controversial in some quarters, especially rural areas where geography has created logistical problems with mergers.

Some consolidation opponents have already argued that the sheer volume of bills is a sign that the law should be repealed. Instead, legislators should try to weed out the bills designed to derail school district reform from the handful of measures that would actually improve it.

One area that should be addressed is the financial burden some districts would be forced to take on through merging. For instance, if Georgetown voters approve a merger with Bath and five other towns, their taxes would go up. If they refuse to merge, the town would be penalized by the state.

A program designed to save towns money by reducing administration should not force them to spend more, even in the short term. The point of the law was not to penalize communities but to reduce expenses all around.

State Backs Leeway on Cost-sharing Among Towns

Ellsworth American, October 11, 2007

(excerpt) Gendron said she will recommend the regional planning committees, which formed among interested communities to help create new districts, be empowered to recommend cost-sharing formulas when the ones in the law make local costs go up.

The reasons for the apparent cost shifts appear myriad and may be partially addressed when all school systems are using the same budgeting methods, making expenditures easier to compare.

Some are due to a requirement in the new law that dictates how costs are shared, both for those expenditures outlined in the state’s Essential Programs and Service (EPS) formula — designed to prepare all students to successfully graduate from high school — and those above EPS, for those districts that choose to spend more than is required.

The school consolidation law says all costs will be shared in the same way, meaning property-rich towns would pay more.

Revisiting the Sinclair Act...

Kennebec Journal, October 15, 2007

(excerpt) Rod McElroy is still moved by the memory. A disparate group of students and teachers from throughout the region, strangers just weeks before, seamlessly gelling into a cohesive unit.

He was a 33-year-old guidance counselor at the new School Administrative District 3 high school that summer of 1964, but McElroy had been around long enough to know he was witnessing greatness.

"It was absolutely positive because of the leadership of the principal, Charles Cosgrove, and it was positive because of the staff coming together," McElroy said. "I'm sitting here talking to you about that situation and I've got goosebumps 40-plus years later. By Christmas that school was operating as Mt. View High School."

Stories like McElroy's unfolded throughout the state after the Legislature passed the Sinclair Act in 1957. Sponsored by then-Sen. Roy Sinclair, R-Pittsfield, the bill was crafted to equalize educational opportunities for students and streamline costs by offering incentives for communities to combine schools. The Sinclair Act led to the most comprehensive school consolidation effort in state history until this year's reorganization legislation, which will force the 290 school units throughout Maine to combine into 80 regions.

Brewer begins new school budget process

Bangor Daily News, October 12, 2007

(excerpt) "This year, we have a new budget process," Superintendent Daniel Lee told the Brewer school board on Wednesday. "It’s going to be a little different than what you have done in the past."

Basically, the new budget process works like this: School boards across the state will vote on 11 budget categories — special education, regular education, career and technical education, other instruction such as summer school, personnel, school administrative costs, system administrative costs, facilities and maintenance, transportation, debt service and all other expenditures.

After the school boards review, update and then approve those budget items, the figures are to be presented to the municipal leaders in each of the member communities of that school system. Then the proposal will go out to a public vote.

In Brewer, the City Council will review and give approval of the figures.

"Within 10 days of the City Council approval, all residents will go to the polls," Lee said. "Voters will come to the polls and vote for [the entire budget] straight up or straight down.

School districts struggle to reduce transportation bill

Portland Press Herald, October 14, 2007

(excerpt) The problem, many school administrators say, is that they've already squeezed the inefficiencies out of their departments. With rising fuel prices and insurance costs, the only way they'll be able to save money is to cut bus service. That could mean longer bus rides, longer walks to bus stops or school, and fewer extracurricular bus trips, they predict.

Transportation costs are one of four areas targeted for savings in the sweeping school consolidation law. The law, passed by the Legislature in June, is aimed at reducing school administration costs by consolidating the state's 290 school districts into about 80 new districts. The state is also reducing state aid for special education and facilities management by 5 percent and school administration by 47 percent. The reductions begin July 1, 2008, a year before the deadline for school districts to consolidate.

State education officials believe Maine's public school transportation systems are filled with waste and that modern technology can help trim the fat.

"We have been told by transportation directors that 5 percent is a conservative estimate. They believe they can find more than that in savings," said David Connerty-Marin, spokesman for Maine's Department of Education.

School transportation expenses, which account for 5 percent of the total amount spent on public education in Maine, have risen steadily over the past decade. While the number of students taking the bus has dropped, the statewide cost to transport pupils to and from school increased by 14 percent, adjusted for inflation, between 1995 and 2005. In 2005, the last year available, school districts spent $80.8 million, or an average $2.33 a mile statewide, transporting students, Maine Department of Education data show.

Gendron: Some schools are hit too hard

Portland Press Herald, October 5, 2007

(excerpts) A change Education Commissioner Susan Gendron says she will recommend to the state Legislature could help overcome cost-sharing barriers to school consolidation.

How costs are shared between consolidating districts is determined by a state formula that factors in student population, property values and other characteristics.

After considering that formula, officials in some school systems -- such as School Administrative District 11, which includes Gardiner, West Gardiner, Pittston and Randolph -- decided not to consolidate with some potential partners because of the cost shifts that would occur if they joined.

For example, if SAD 11 were to consolidate with School Union 44 -- which includes Litchfield, Sabattus and Wales -- SAD 11 taxpayers, largely because of differences in property valuations between the two school systems, would have to pay $800,000 to $1 million more a year, according to Steve Hunnewell, vice chairman of the SAD 11 Board of Directors.

Hunnewell said such cost shifting was the primary obstacle to SAD 11 consolidating with Union 44.

Cost shifts were also an issue in discussions between SAD 11 and Augusta schools, although state and Augusta officials have disputed how much the shift would be and how greatly it would affect Augusta taxpayers.

New system for testing high-schoolers unvelied

Portland Press Herald, October 2, 2007

(excerpt) Each Maine student must achieve proficiency in all eight content areas (English language arts, math, science, social studies, foreign languages, career education, visual and performing arts and physical education). Proficiency will be shown by a new Maine High School Assessment System, a "collection" of state- required assessments for graduation and local assessments.

The MHSAS will include the SAT in math, reading and writing. It will also include a state-developed science assessment and something called "math augmentation," which seems to be a Web-based assessment tool, and a "data project."

In addition there will be several state-mandated local assessments, including: a public policy assessment; a wellness portfolio; a visual and performing arts assessment; and a world language assessment.

Finally, there is something called a state "collection," which apparently would be a locally developed set of assessments on attributes such as interpersonal skills, goal-setting and decision-making.

Lunchboxes, backpacks searched at Dexter schools after bomb threats

Bangor Daily News, October 2, 2007

(excerpts) Police and school officials searched backpacks and lunchboxes of Dexter Primary and Middle School pupils Monday in response to the second of two bomb threats discovered late last week in SAD 46 schools.

The first bomb threat was discovered by a janitor after school had closed on Thursday. The note scrawled on a Dexter Regional High School bathroom wall referred to a bomb going off the next day, according to SAD 46 Superintendent Kevin Jordan.

...

Just minutes before school ended on Friday, a Dexter Middle School pupil alerted a faculty member about a note left behind on a bathroom sink in that school. Jordan said it appeared to be a "copycat" note that also alluded to a bomb.

Jordan said the middle and primary schools, which are connected, were locked down and state and local police were again called. Jordan said nothing was found during the search.

"We caught it just before students were leaving," Jordan said. He said pupils were provided with a note to give their parents explaining the incident. The note also advised parents that the school and police would search students and bags at the doors on Monday.

Get Congress Out of the Classroom

New York Times, October 3, 2007

(excerpts) The main goal of the law — that all children in the United States will be proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014 — is simply unattainable. The primary strategy — to test all children in those subjects in grades three through eight every year — has unleashed an unhealthy obsession with standardized testing that has reduced the time available for teaching other important subjects. Furthermore, the law completely fractures the traditional limits on federal interference in the operation of local schools.
...

Congress should also drop the absurd goal of achieving universal proficiency by 2014. Given that no nation, no state and no school district has ever reached 100 percent math and reading proficiency for all grades, it is certain that the goal cannot be met. Perpetuating this unrealistic ideal, however, guarantees that increasing numbers of schools will “fail” as the magic year 2014 gets closer.

Unless we set realistic goals for our schools and adopt realistic means of achieving them, we run the risk of seriously damaging public education and leaving almost all children behind.

Glenburn: Decision to deny consolidation plans appealed

Bangor Daily News, September 29, 2007

(excerpt) Glenburn submitted two letters of intent by the state’s August deadline, but both were rejected by Education Commissioner Susan Gendron, who suggested the community should be looking to consolidate with neighboring Bangor. That also goes against her previous suggestion that Glenburn join with Hudson, Bradford, Corinth, Stetson and Kenduskeag.

"We have had good relationships with the area school systems and wish to keep these relationships intact," said Ron Tewhey, the committee chairman.

Both of Glenburn’s proposals were inconsistent with the state’s original direction, but other towns filed similar, if not identical, letters of intent.

Act Fast To Fix School Consolidation Flaws

Kennebec Journal, September 29, 2007

(excerpt) Education Commissioner Susan Gendron testified before the Legislature's Appropriations Committee this week that two aspects of the law have created barriers to consolidation in some locations: the requirement that districts raise at least $2 per $1,000 in property valuation for education and the possibility that consolidation would decrease a new districts' state aid. That could easily mean taxpayers will pay more for schools, not less.

If that is the case, something should be done as soon as possible. If the state has some "give" in how the law is administered, now is the time to apply it when the situations clearly justifies it. And then, when the Legislature is next in session, amendments can be debated and voted on.

Madison: Two distant districts work toward merger

Bangor Daily News, September 29, 2007

(excerpt) The announcement last Friday that SAD 53 will not pursue consolidation with SADs 38 and 48, but rather will focus on SAD 59, came as a surprise to many since the two districts are a distance away from each other.

But officials said this week that it will be the sharing of services and administrations, not schools or students, that will allow the entities to become one school unit.

"Distance is not an issue in this," SAD 53 Superintendent Michael Gallagher said.

The plan does not call for moving students or blending schools. "It would be a consolidation of administration," he said.

SAD 53 represents Burnham, Detroit and Pittsfield along the Sebasticook River valley, while SAD 59 includes Madison, Starks, Athens and Brighton Plantation.

SAD 59 Superintendent Sandra MacArthur said Wednesday that, apart from the distance, the two districts some common ground. "We have very similar philosophies on what we value," she said.