More concerns raised about schools plan

Bangor Daily News, December 27, 2007

(excerpt) Maine’s school consolidation law has come under heavy criticism from regional planning committees over the last few months, and in response the state’s education commissioner has proposed changes intended to address some of the critics’ questions.

But some planners still have deep concerns about whether the law, even with changes, can work.

"The more we go along with this, the more problems we find," said Mary Cummins, co-chair of the Regional School Union 10 planning committee on the Blue Hill Peninsula. "What we’re worried about is that there are things we haven’t seen yet. We’re trying to make decisions without information."

Local control long gone

Bangor Daily News, December 27, 2007

(excerpt) So when town politicians cry and whine about school consolidation or scholastic requirements set by the state and federal government they are out of line. They made a deal with the devil and now they don’t want to pay up. The only way to really have local control, to avoid having the state or federal government telling a town how to run its schools, is to finance those schools (or jails or highways or whatever) totally from town funds. Anything less and you must expect to meet the requirements of your benefactor.

Orono panel clarifies consolidation plan

Bangor Daily News, December 20, 2007

(excerpt) Superintendent Kelley Clenchy said Wednesday that the committee wanted to make clear its intent to include Glenburn and Veazie in consolidation discussions, along with Old Town and the communities that make up Union 90 (Milford, Alton, Bradley and Greenbush).

The committee voted last month to form a regional school unit with Old Town and Union 90, but the plan hasn’t sat well with some community members.

An online petition signed by nearly 400 residents was presented Tuesday to the committee. The document calls for the committee to reverse its Nov. 29 3-2 decision and instead to pursue a smaller regional school unit with Veazie and Glenburn.

Baldacci cuts $38 million from budget

Portland Press Herald, December 19, 2007

(excerpt) Administration officials said the $20.1 million in education cuts will not reduce state payments to local schools, but Baldacci has reserved the right to postpone an end-of-year payment, if that becomes necessary to balance the budget.

The bulk of the education savings -- $16.6 million -- involves what the state calls discretionary funds, including state contracts for such things as testing, teacher training and implementing the state's Learning Results program.

Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said Tuesday that the state will continue to make monthly payments to local schools, but if the state cannot afford to make a full payment to them next June, the last month of the fiscal year, it may delay part of that payment until July, bumping the expense into the next fiscal year.

SAD 46 panel changes contractor for school
Bangor Daily News, December 18, 2007

(excerpt) Jordan said the low bidder for the groundwork, Nitram Excavation and General Contractor of Benton, was unable to do the project, so directors voted Dec. 5 to contract with H.E. Sargent of Stillwater. Nitram had submitted an original base bid of $3,832,000 while Sargent's base bid was $4,987,957. Some changes were made to reduce Sargent's bid, he said.

Also at this month's meeting, directors voted to extend Jordan's contract to June 30, 2011. His salary will be addressed during budget deliberations.

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Bar Harbor: Island’s leaders upset state rejected MDI school plan

Bangor Daily News, December 18, 2007

(excerpt) Bar Harbor resident Brian Hubbell, vice chairman of the committee, wrote in a prepared statement that the decision left him and his fellow committee members "astonished."

Pingree, whose district includes the MDI towns of Tremont and part of Mount Desert, wrote in a letter to Gendron on Sunday that she was "frustrated" by the state’s rejection of the plan.

"The reasons why the plan was rejected completely contradict the long negotiations that occurred in my office and the very specific conversations we had about the rights and powers that could be delegated to the K-8 schools," Pingree wrote.

David Connerty-Marin, director of communications for the Education Department, on Monday attributed the frustration to a misunderstanding of what was discussed.

He said Gendron approved of letting local school committees have an advisory role to their RSU. Local towns could raise money for the elementary schools within their borders, he said, but only whatever additional funds the RSU was not willing to raise.

"What they have proposed puts the same burden on the central office with multiple budgets," Connerty-Marin said. "The RSU has a fiduciary and legal responsibility for the K-12 budget. They cannot give up their fiduciary responsibility [to a municipal school committee]."

Marshall said she is not sure what the MDI committee will do in response to Gendron’s rejection of its plan. Pingree and other area legislators have indicated they will try to meet with Gendron to go over the issue, she said.

Robert Klose: An alternate option for Orono schools

Bangor Daily News, December 18, 2007

(excerpt) Should Orono consolidate with the larger Old Town and its environs? Or with the smaller Veazie and Glenburn? I think there is a third way.

My modest proposal is that Orono do neither. Instead, I suggest that we consider converting Orono High School (because this is what we are in danger of losing) into a charter school — one of those entities that is, indeed, a public school, but which is largely free of state governmental strictures, so long as learning results are honored.

What would this mean in terms of nuts and bolts? In order to strike out on our own and create something we can afford — and here my fellow residents of Orono must brace themselves and break out the hard liquor — the industrial-level sports teams would have to go. This means no football or hockey. This isn’t as radical as it sounds. Ellsworth dumped its football team years ago. Its muscle defaulted to its soccer squad, which immediately became a juggernaut. Orono’s elimination of these teams would immediately save a bundle.

The next item on the chopping block would be the school buses. This means that we would have to pitch in and get each other’s children to school. Can this be done? Sure. Private schools already do it. This would require organization and commitment, not bad virtues no matter what the circumstances.

School officials like the idea of delaying votes on budgets

Portland Press Herald, December 17, 2007

(excerpt) Some school officials support what could be a reprieve from holding local votes on their budgets next year.

The Educational and Cultural Affairs Committee has recommended delaying the budget referendum process required under the state's new school district consolidation law. If the Legislature approves the delay, school districts that would have been required to put the school budgets before voters for approval starting in 2008 would not have to do so until 2009. If that postponement passes, new accounting procedures in the provision also would be delayed.

The budget validation process had school districts statewide scrambling to meet the new requirements that some predicted would be costly and require repeated votes to win approval.

"It would be a very good move by the Legislature to postpone this for a year so we are not lumping consolidation issues along with budget issues," said Suzanne Godin, South Portland school superintendent.

Education Commissioner Susan Gendron endorsed the delay. She said the budget validation process was designed to create more transparency within the budgeting process, but with school districts caught up with the complexities of working out mergers with other districts, it made sense to delay the new budget adoption measures.

Alison Williamson: Orono panels make poor consolidation choice

Bangor Daily News, December 17, 2007

(excerpt) By their own admission, ORPC members received "reams of information" from August through November, which must have come from Veazie and Glenburn because nothing was received from Old Town, Alton, Greenbush, Milford and Bradley. By their own admission, ORPC members did not review any of it. Multiple times, committee members complained about information overload and openly admitted they had not read what they received.

Further exacerbating the situation, Orono representatives have not received any financial data from the state upon which to base a decision. The prevailing reason committee members gave against committing to the smaller Orono-Veazie-Glenburn configuration was concern over sustainability. Without appropriate data to analyze, one cannot make an argument for or against financial sustainability of either configuration. More students does not always ensure better sustainability. The Orono representatives had no information with regard to the schools in Old Town, Alton, Bradley, Milford and Greenbush except that the majority are lower performing academically.

Teacher program extension sought

Bangor Daily News, December 13, 2007

(excerpt) directors on Tuesday voted to apply to the Department of Education’s Renovation Fund for the purchase of a new boiler for the Guilford Primary School. The 1991 boiler in use had a leak. The repair of the existing boiler is estimated at $10,000 compared with a new boiler at about $40,000, he said. The district’s share of the new boiler would be about 34 percent to 35 percent of the total cost, he said.

Since the new boiler installed at Piscataquis Community High School reduced oil consumption by 37 percent in 2007, it is expected that a new boiler in the primary school will do the same, according to Stearns.

Directors also approved a 3 percent raise for Stearns, taking his salary to $94,420. He does not take health benefits through his position. His contract previously had been extended to 2011 and Stearns asked that his contract not be extended beyond that date.

Lawmakers get earful on consolidation

Bangor Daily News, December 13, 2007

(excerpt) Judy Sproule, a retired investment banker and member of the Trenton School Committee and its regional planning group, said the bill would not rectify the financial problems brought on by consolidation. She said cost-shifting would not be eliminated by the bill and that the legislation does not provide the relief it advertises.

Sproule said that unlike the corporate world where mergers are not considered without extensive fact-finding and the use of legal and financial experts, the Legislature has imposed a system where volunteer community members are expected to spend thousands of unpaid hours trying to create a workable school department.

"Very few of these people have the requisite legal or financial experience," Sproule said. "All we have is a hastily constructed and admitted flawed law which it now falls upon the Legislature to fix."

Millinocket school head gets no-confidence vote

Bangor Daily News, December 12, 2007

(excerpt) One Millinocket Education Association member said Tuesday he considered Alberts’ one-year contract extension, awarded at a Union 113-Millinocket School committee meeting last week, "a slap in the face" because it occurred despite the letters.

According to the Nov. 13 letter, at least four employees were not paid the previous week; some employees wait several pay periods for payment; budgets are frozen, causing some teachers to buy with their own funds needed supplies and lodging at professional development activities.

Many substitute teachers and vendors remain unpaid; at one point in late October, Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. threatened to shut off power to the high school and middle school for nonpayment; the town’s three schools continue to receive third and fourth overdue billing notices; and, five months into the fiscal year, the school system still lacks a true reckoning of income and expenditures, the letter states.

Staff also are assigned tasks outside job descriptions, special education assistants monitor regular study halls when they should be with special education students, and teachers are implementing standards-based grading even as the new system is being designed, making multiple reassessments necessary.

Consolidation’s impact on towns considered

Bar Harbor Times, December 12, 2007

(excerpt) Bar Harbor manager Dana Reed reported to the league on a presentation he attended regarding the effect of consolidation on municipalities.

Some matters that might be affected include: town ownership of schoolproperties, town use of schools as emergency shelters and for recreation programming and adult education, funding received by towns to improve school facilities, town infrastructure on school properties, such as pump stations and sewer pipes, cable TV franchise agreements, fiduciary arrangements, school personnel on town retirement or insurance plans, and police department presence at school functions.

Mr. Reed said he planned to meet with his town’s department heads to compile an inventory of interactions and begin to straighten out the issues.

Legislators face challenge on consolidation law

Portland Press Herald, December 12, 2007

(excerpt) Opposition to the reorganization law has been characterized by many as having its roots in some kind of narrow and provincial self-interest on the part of local school boards and superintendents.

News reports, though, indicate that the fundamental question is this: What is to be gained, beyond saving the state budget some money, by completely restructuring a system of school management that is been in place for more than a century?

Gov. Baldacci, to his credit, included in his original consolidation plan a series of reforms that went well beyond simply generating budget savings.

As a part of his proposal, the governor suggested the creation of new college scholarships, extensive teacher training opportunities, and an expansion of the school laptop program.

Whatever one thinks of those particular initiatives, at least the governor gave school and community leaders a few reasons to invest themselves in the task of reinventing how their schools are run.

The Legislature, where bold ideas go to die, dropped both the governor's reform ideas and the opportunity to make the reorganization effort about something more than an attempt to balance the budget with the plan's largely fictitious projected savings.

Now the reorganization law is back before them again, in dire need of reform.

Gendron sees merger numbers meeting state goals

Statehouse News Service, December 12, 2007

(excerpt) The intent of the law is to reduce the number of districts statewide to fewer than 80, not including island and tribal schools. The school consolidation law passed earlier this year says districts must have 2,500 students or more, where possible, but no less than 1,200.

“When you see that in several cases we received separate plans from units that have agreed to come together, and 13 plans are for less than 1,200 students, which is not allowed under the law, I would expect that the 86 configurations in hand or expected will drop to somewhere between 70 and 80 regional school units,” Gendron said.

...

There already were 15 districts in the state that exceeded the 2,500 limit and 12 that fall between 1,200 and 2,500. They have submitted what’s being called “alternative plans” that do not include reorganization.

Fourteen reorganization plans submitted would create districts of 2,500 or more and 23 reorganization plans would create districts of between 1,200 and 2,500. There were also four districts already under 1,200 that want to stay the way they are and nine reorganization plans that would create new districts that still fall below the 1,200 mark.

Maine magnet school listed in top 100 in U.S.

Bangor Daily News, December 10, 2007

(excerpt) Commissioner Susan Gendron of the Maine Department of Education praised the achievement by MSSM as a "significant accomplishment," adding that it is "good recognition for Maine School of Science and Mathematics and demonstrates the success of this unique learning opportunity for students from all over Maine."

Gendron also lauded the 12 other Maine high schools to earn a place in the rankings. Silver medals were awarded to Bangor, Falmouth, Greely (in Cumberland) and Yarmouth high schools. Eight Maine schools earned bronze medals: Carrabec High School in Anson, Easton Junior-Senior High School, Greenville Middle-High School, Islesboro Central School, Katahdin Middle-High School in Stacyville, Lubec Consolidated School, Stearns High School in Millinocket and Washburn District High School.

Walter J. Warner, MSSM executive director, said Friday he is equally proud of the students, faculty and staff at the facility.

At this point, he said, 100 percent of MSSM graduates go on to four-year colleges and universities. Some alumni have started their own technology-related businesses or work in the technology field, while others are still in school, finishing up postgraduate or professional degrees.

Scott K. Porter: Guidance needed on school consolidation concerns

Bangor Daily News, December 10, 2007

(excerpt) The rules for the RSU planning process have never been clear. Lack of consistent information from the Department of Education continues to create frustration and confusion locally. Superintendents and facilitators place call after call to Augusta for guidance on, for example, cost-sharing formulas, RSU board powers, local school committees, or transportation data and get conflicting responses (and sometimes no response). So educators are left to plan in the dark, hoping that their efforts will match a blueprint in Augusta that apparently does not exist. What are the governor and education commissioner doing to ensure that the planning process follows "best practice" strategic planning steps?

The timeline for developing plans and putting them before school boards and residents is so short that solid information-gathering and effective deliberations cannot happen. The Department of Education publicly states that few if any complete plans were ready by the mandated date, Dec. 1. We believe in "data-based decisions" in our schools, yet the timeline dictated by the law doesn’t permit data-based, thoughtful decisions for the most sweeping change in Maine schooling in the past 50 years. What are the governor and commissioner doing to provide time and expertise for thoughtful deliberations on this matter so vital to Maine families, communities, and economy?

Everybody recognizes the need to live within our means. But setting unrealistic timelines, providing little guidance and fiscal support, and then threatening Maine citizens with punishments if they fail to comply is no way to achieve this important goal. We would never support such an approach in our schools. It’s morally and logistically ruinous.

Getting Past 'No Child'

Washington Post, December 9, 2007 (via RCP)

(excerpt) NCLB's crucial provisions concern testing to measure yearly progress toward the goal of "universal proficiency" in math and reading by 2014. This goal is America's version of Soviet grain quotas, solemnly avowed but not seriously constraining. Most states retain the low standards they had before; some have defined proficiency down.

So says "The Proficiency Illusion," a report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which studies education reform. Its findings include:

The rationale for standards-based reform was that expectations would become more rigorous and uniform, but states' proficiency tests vary "wildly" in difficulty, "with 'passing scores' ranging from the 6th percentile to the 77th." Indeed, "half of the reported improvement in reading, and 70 percent of the reported improvement in mathematics, appear idiosyncratic to the state test." In some states, tests have become more demanding; but in twice as many states, the tests in at least two grades have become easier. NCLB encourages schools to concentrate their efforts on the relatively small number of students near the state test's proficiency minimum -- the students who can most help the state meet its "adequate yearly progress" requirements.

Most districts meeting plan-submission deadline

Morning Sentinel, December 9, 2007

(excerpts) Every school district in the state but one -- has submitted a school reorganization plan to the Maine Department of Education, David Connerty-Marin, department spokesman said Friday.

"Just about everybody has filed as far as we know," he said. "Only SAD 24 (Van Buren) hasn't submitted, but we either have plans in hand or on their way or at least some sort of submission in hand."

One week after a Dec. 1 deadline, the Department of Education is still busy reviewing plans aimed at consolidating Maine's 290 school districts.

That leaves Education Commissioner Susan Gendron just one week to approve or reject those plans.

...

By Dec. 15, Gendron will approve or return any plan that does not meet the requirements of the law, with specific suggestions and reasons as to why the plan did not meet requirements.

Any plan submitted to and approved by Gendron by that date may proceed to a January municipal referendum.

Consolidation permeates 2008 legislative agenda

Portland Press Herald, December 9, 2007

(excerpt) The upcoming debates will deal in part with the fallout from the Legislature's decision earlier this year to cut the number of school districts from 290 to about 80.

While some school districts have embraced the law, or at least quietly resigned themselves to it, the cost-cutting move has come under attack from critics who say the state should repeal the law or fine-tune it to make it work better.

State Education Commissioner Susan Gendron, who works for Baldacci, hopes to improve the law by submitting legislation that would give communities in merged districts more control of how costs are shared.

Her proposal also calls for reinstating state aid to communities that face losses under the merger law and would remove a requirement that communities spend at least $2 per $1,000 valuation on education.

"We believe the bill we're presenting will resolve most of these issues, if not all of these issues," Farmer said.

Yet opposition remains.

Lawmakers initially proposed more than 60 bills to kill or rewrite the law in 2008.

Legislative leaders tossed them aside, arguing that the Legislature can use Gendron's bill as a starting point for reforms.

One critic of the law believes Baldacci will get his way in the Legislature next year, even though the Education Committee will consider competing proposals.

"I think the only changes that will be made are what the governor supports and the commissioner proposes," said Rep. Peter Edgecomb, R-Caribou, a member of the Education Committee and a former school superintendent who backs repeal.

Orono: Town sees online bid to stop RSU plan

Bangor Daily News, December 7, 2007

(excerpt) An online petition is being passed around encouraging Orono residents to show their opposition to the School Committee’s decision to form a regional school unit with Old Town and Union 90, which comprises Alton, Bradley, Greenbush and Milford.

Nearly 200 people have electronically signed the document, which calls for the School Committee to reverse its 3-2 Nov. 29 decision.

"People are afraid that what they have in Orono as a good school system is going to be lost," resident Stan Levitsky said Thursday. "None of these decisions were made from any evidence. It’s all emotion and it’s all supposition of what you like better."

The petition asks the committee instead to pursue the other option previously considered, which is to merge Orono with Veazie and Glenburn.

SAD 68, Union 60 stuck on consolidation

Bangor Daily News, November 24, 2007

(excerpt) SAD 68 is among a handful of districts across the state that has found itself as the "doughnut hole" of school district regionalization.

School districts around SAD 68 have joined efforts elsewhere to comply with Maine’s school consolidation law, which requires school districts to form regional school units in order to reduce administrative costs.

SAD 41 (Milo area) and SAD 64 (Corinth area) are working together, and SAD 4 (Guilford area) and SAD 46 (Dexter area) are moving forward on plans to partner. That leaves SAD 68 (Dover-Foxcroft, Charleston, Monson and Sebec) smack in the middle of its neighbors with no one to partner with except Union 60 (Greenville, Beaver Cove, Kingsbury Plantation, Shirley and Willimantic), which is located a school district away.

Greenville, which had been working with Jackman and Bingham, now finds itself in a similar situation because of its isolation.

"That leaves us in the middle with nowhere to go," SAD 68 Superintendent John Dirnbauer said recently.