Board eyes closing 2 schools

Sun Journal, March 27, 2008

(excerpt) Kendall said he was motivated to consider a different way of addressing the budget after a few schools had to close because their roofs caved in from heavy snow. Other schools had to double up on facilities.

"I know this has been done in other school districts in Maine and the country," he said. "I am trying to give us an alternative to consider that I believe has merit, that preserves what Auburn has provided for educational experience to children, which has been a superior educational experience in my estimation," he said. "We need a different solution than cut, cut, cut and see where the chips fall."

What if, Potvin asked, next year the federal and state revenue picture looks better, meanwhile Auburn has closed two schools. Wouldn't the action look silly to residents who have lost schools, Potvin asked.

Will the Commissioner Keep Her Word?

Ellsworth American, March 27, 2008

(excerpt) Last spring, during the debate on the budget bill, Sen. Dennis Damon raised the following question, quoted verbatim from page S-914 of the Senate legislative record of June 6, 2007: “If two existing administrative units make a good-faith effort to consolidate and the result of that effort ends up costing more than it saves, will those two units still be penalized for not consolidating?” Sen. Damon reported that there was no response to the question from his legislative colleagues.

However, Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron was sitting in the Senate chamber that evening when Sen. Damon posed that question. She wrote him a response as follows: “If the regional planning committees make a good faith effort at consolidation and can document that there are no cost savings, then those units will not have to consolidate.”

During the March 7, 2008 meeting of the Maine Small Schools Coalition in Orono, SAD 24 Superintendent Clayton Belanger of Van Buren reported about one aspect of the work that the planning committee for Regional School Unit 1 (RSU 1) had completed. RSU 1, which would consolidate four SADs and two municipal school units, covers 676 square miles of the St. John River Valley in Aroostook County. The regional planning committee asked all the central administrative staffs to meet and develop a plan for one central administrative office for the proposed RSU 1. The cost of the new office with one superintendent will exceed the costs of the six existing administrative offices by $210,000 per year.

Other regional planning committees in the state are predicting various levels of added costs. None find any cost savings during the first three years as verified by the testimony of the Department of Education consultants who are advising the committees.

Consolidation updates due Friday

Kennebec Journal update, March 27, 2008

(excerpt) Updated plans showing progress from Maine’s 290 school districts working to reorganize into 80 units are due Friday.

The Department of Education is asking the proposed regional-school units to submit revisions by Friday to the plans they last filed in December with the department. School districts are reorganizing to comply with a law passed last year aimed at shrinking the number of Maine school districts to cut administrative costs.

While a number of districts intend to file updated plans, other units that have not taken major actions since the December submission are sending letters to the department instead explaining why they have been unable to act.

School law change has House OK

Bangor Daily News, March 26, 2008

(excerpt) "We are still opposed to the amendments included in this bill," said David Farmer, spokesman for Gov. John Baldacci. "We think it is unfortunate that the noncontroversial, technical changes that the bill started out with have been encumbered with these controversial items that undermine the law as it was passed last year."

Although Baldacci has not said he will veto the bill with the school union amendment, Farmer said Tuesday that he "expects that will be the case" when the bill reaches the governor’s desk.

The vote in the House was 104-41. The Senate passed the bill last week by a vote of 26-8. Approval in both houses was by more than two-thirds and therefore enough to withstand the expected veto. The bill still faces final votes in the House and Senate before it goes to the governor for his consideration.

The school union amendment is a major change to the law that, according to Education Department officials, would result in a substantial increase in the number of school districts above those mandated in the original consolidation law.

The amendment allows for regional school unions in addition to the regional school units required in the law. While a school union still requires a central administrative office to handle functions such as accounting, transportation and core curriculum development, the union governance structure would allow local committees to make decisions regarding local operation of their schools, including adopting a school budget and hiring staff.

Portland should reopen teachers' contract

Portland Press Herald, March 24, 2008

(excerpt) The city and its teachers' union should reopen the current labor contract and find a way to compensate teachers fairly without weakening the schools' ability to teach children

Under the current labor contract, a typical Portland teacher can expect to see a 6.7 percent increase in salary and benefits this year.

About one-third of the overall increase comes from teachers who become entitled to "lane changes" by engaging in professional development activities.

That can mean taking courses toward a higher degree or taking on professional tasks that would enhance their skills.

The problem with this approach is that it puts the decision-making in the hands of the employees and gives the School Committee little control over how to manage its budget.

In a tight budget year like this one, the administration might prefer to cut back on professional development and use the salary budget to keep more staff members on the payroll.

Seeking a kinder word for failure

Boston Globe, March 22, 2008

(excerpt) To soothe the bruised egos of educators and children in lackluster schools, Massachusetts officials are now pushing for kinder, gentler euphemisms for failure.

Instead of calling these schools "underperforming," the Board of Education is considering labeling them as "Commonwealth priority," to avoid poisoning teacher and student morale.

Schools in the direst straits, now known as "chronically underperforming," would get the more urgent but still vague label of "priority one."

The board has spent parts of more than three meetings in recent months debating the linguistic merits and tone set by the terms after a handful of superintendents from across the state complained that the label underperforming unfairly casts blame on educators, hinders the recruitment of talented teachers, and erodes students' self-esteem.

While many educators support the largely symbolic changes, others call them sugarcoating and unnecessary, feeding into the sentiment that children are coddled. Debating the terms, they say, wastes time when the board should be coming up with a plan to fix the state's 114 low-performing schools. Changing the labels seems to be intended to appease overly sensitive educators, critics say.

Consolidation foes set to descend on Statehouse

Kennebec Journal, March 24, 2008

(excerpt) Opponents of the school-district consolidation law will be at the Statehouse on Wednesday to try to convince lawmakers to repeal the measure.

Skip Greenlaw of the Maine Coalition to Save Schools put out an e-mail last week urging like-minded supporters to come to Augusta to lobby legislators. Greenlaw gathered more than 40,000 signatures to try to call for a citizen vote for repeal, but fell short of the 55,000 needed to get it on the ballot.

Greenlaw is now hanging his hopes on a minority report that calls for repeal that will be attached to a "relatively innocuous education bill."

"We're hoping to get people to vote on it," Greenlaw said.

Slated cuts hit private schools

Bangor Daily News, March 24, 2008

(excerpt) Proposed cuts in the state education budget would reduce funds to private high schools in the state, although a compromise in committee would lessen the blow somewhat.

Gov. John Baldacci’s latest state budget proposal calls for a $34 million reduction in education funding including a one-time elimination of the insured value factor for private high schools.

The insured value factor allows some private high schools to add a 10 percent surcharge onto the maximum allowed tuition rate they charge districts that send students to their schools. The surcharge is earmarked for capital construction projects, according to Department of Education spokesman David Connerty-Marin.

The current maximum tuition rate is about $8,000 per student, Connerty-Marin said Friday, which, if the proposed cut stands, would mean private schools would receive about $800 less per tuitioned student next year.

A compromise worked out between the Legislature’s Education and Appropriations committees, however, would put back half of the insured value factor surcharge and allow the independent schools to charge 5 percent above the maximum tuition rate.

Schools detail grant-funded jobs

Portland Press Herald update, March 20, 2008

(excerpt) Portland school officials have released a full accounting of all grant-funded positions in the district.

The school department has the equivalent of 99 full-time positions that are paid by grants this year, according to the latest 2008-09 budget proposal. That's in addition to the equivalent of 1,149 full-time jobs funded by Portland taxpayers.

The district received about $6.9 million this year in federal grants that pay for 91.5 positions. It also received about $500,000 in state and local grants that pay for 7.5 positions.

States’ Data Obscure How Few Finish High School

New York Times, March 20, 2008

(excerpt) When it comes to high school graduation rates, Mississippi keeps two sets of books.

One team of statisticians working at the state education headquarters here recently calculated the official graduation rate at a respectable 87 percent, which Mississippi reported to Washington. But in another office piled with computer printouts, a second team of number crunchers came up with a different rate: a more sobering 63 percent.

The state schools superintendent, Hank Bounds, says the lower rate is more accurate and uses it in a campaign to combat a dropout crisis.

“We were losing about 13,000 dropouts a year, but publishing reports that said we had graduation rate percentages in the mid-80s,” Mr. Bounds said. “Mathematically, that just doesn’t work out.”

School funding debate looms

Kennebec Journal, March 20, 2008

(excerpt) A debate about whether the state should continue to work toward funding 55 percent of the cost of education -- a mandate approved by voters in 2004 -- is brewing at the Legislature.

Rep. Henry Joy, R-Crystal, is sponsoring a bill to cut the level from 55 percent to 49 percent. He said the state can't afford it and voters didn't understand how it would work when they approved it.

Joy said with the state facing a $190 million budget shortfall, which might grow even larger, and it's time to revisit the 55-percent expectation.

"The hole in the budget brings desperate times and it brings about desperate measures to solve it," he said.

But others disagree with his approach.

SAD 68 says school official abruptly quit

Bangor Daily News, March 20, 2008

(excerpt) In a surprise move, John Dirnbauer resigned last Thursday as SAD 68 superintendent of schools.

When directors learned of his resignation for personal reasons, they held a meeting that day to accept Dirnbauer’s resignation, according to board Chairman Jennifer Chase.

"It was a surprise," Chase said this week. She said Dirnbauer’s contract with the district ran until 2009. Dirnbauer started with the district on July 1, 2002.

Towns weigh school unit Vassalboro, China, Winslow consider consolidation plans

Morning Sentinel, March 20, 2008

(excerpt) Vassalboro wants to explore whether going back to the future will satisfy the state-mandated school consolidation initiative.

Lori Fowle, chairman of the Vassalboro School Committee, sees reforming the School Union 52 towns of Vassalboro, Winslow and China as a regional school unit (RSU) as a reasonable -- and possibly preferable -- option to the eight-community RSU once planned.

That larger school system combined Union 52 with Waterville and the four towns of School Administrative District 47 (Oakland, Belgrade, Sidney, Rome).

But Waterville already has pulled out of the proposed RSU and even SAD 47 has kept open the option of remaining a four-town school unit.

"I think early on it was something we wanted to do," Fowle said of sticking exclusively with Winslow and China, "but we didn't know what the cost factors were."

Fowle, however, said she and the rest of her board now have a better understanding of the costs and see reforming Union 52 as an RSU as a viable option.

"We meet the criteria of an RSU," she said, "as far as our student population and that we have a high school."

Quest for data on school grants stymies council

Portland Press Herald, March 19, 2008

(excerpt) When the council's finance committee pressed Whynot-Vickers for grant information again last week, she promised to come through by the end of March. She said it would be impossible, however, to give them an accurate, year-to-year comparison of grant-funded positions over the last decade, as councilors have requested.

Councilors said they want the grant information before they ask voters to consider the 2008-09 school budget in a first-time referendum on May 13, which is required under the state's new school consolidation law.

The council reviews the school budget and sets the bottom line.

City Budget Director Ellen Sanborn, who has been overseeing school finances since August, said the grant documentation that councilors want doesn't exist, has been lost or is inaccurate.

"I wouldn't trust it," Sanborn told committee members.

Mayor Edward Suslovic said he found Sanborn's revelation "a bit shocking. Hopefully, it tells how far we've come."

The district's failure to track grant-funded positions came to light during the budget crisis, which led to the resignation of the schools' superintendent and finance director.

MEAs take shaky step into computer age

Bangor Daily News, March 19, 2008

(excerpt) Some eighth-grade students have had difficulty taking the online version of the Maine Educational Assessment tests, and their schools have reverted to the pen and pencil version.

The problems that have occurred have not been widespread, according to state officials and steps have been taken to remedy those issues. But the snarls have caused some frustration for students and teachers and some concern for administrators about the eventual results from the tests.

"We’re taking a low-key approach right now," said Jim Boothby, superintendent for SAD 26 and Union 92. "But we are watching it closely. It is a concern."

The problem, according to Trenton Elementary School Principal Gary Bosk, is that the computer erases work that the students have done on the test.

U.S. Eases ‘No Child’ Law as Applied to Some States

New York Times, March 19, 2008

(excerpt) Under the new program, the federal Department of Education will give up to 10 states permission to focus reform efforts on schools that are drastically underperforming and intervene less forcefully in schools that are raising the test scores of most students but struggling with one group, like the disabled, for instance. The No Child law, which President Bush signed in 2002, was intended to force states to bring all students to proficiency in reading and math by 2014. In six years it has identified 9,000 of the nation’s 90,000 public schools as “in need of improvement,” the law’s term for failing, and experts predict that those numbers could multiply in coming years.

The rising number of failing schools is overwhelming states’ capacities to turn them around, and states have complained that the law imposes the same set of sanctions, which can escalate to a school’s closing, on the nation’s worst schools as well as those doing a reasonable job despite some problems.

The nation’s largest teachers union as well as some research groups who study the law welcomed Ms. Spellings’s announcement. “This is something good, something we’ve been advocating,” said Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, the teachers union.

SAD 54 works on budget

Morning Sentinel, March 18, 2008

(excerpt) Compared to some of its neighbors, School Administrative District 54 stands to realize a pretty good increase in state funding.

Tentative figures from the governor's and the education committee's proposed budgets both show SAD 54 getting an increase in state funding of more than $1 million, Superintendent Brent Colbry said Monday. He is somewhat skeptical that number will hold.

"I'm just leery of that," he said. "There are so many communities that are losing money. We're certainly appreciative of that, if it's true."

Even if it is true, that would represent a decrease in the amount that went to the district last year. Throw in a loss of Medicaid revenues amounting to $400,000, and the school board is facing some tough decisions.

"My sense is, there will be some significant changes in how we do business here," Colbry said. "Even with these numbers, we'll have to make cuts in order to come up with a budget the board will support. They're very concerned about taxes."

Schools still awaiting word from state on funds

Kennebec Journal, March 16, 2008

(excerpt) The proposed school budget could either lead to a small tax increase or decrease for city taxpayers, depending primarily on how much funding comes from the state.

Augusta, and other schools statewide, received three different estimates of what its total state funding will be from the Department of Education.

The first estimate, Superintendent Cornelia Brown said, was issued with incorrect special-education funding figures and was recalled.

In Augusta's case, both remaining budget scenarios are increases over the funding the school system received from the state last year.

The budget package favored by Gov. John Baldacci would increase state aid to Augusta schools to about $14.6 million -- an increase of about $602,000, or 4.3 percent, from last year, according to Brown.

The other state budget scenario for education funding, favored by the Legislature's Education Committee, would send Augusta's schools around $14.4 million -- an increase of $436,000, or 3.11 percent.

If the higher figure is adopted by the state, and nothing changes in the city's currently proposed school budget, local taxpayers would be asked for about $68,000 less to fund schools.

If the lower state figure is adopted, and nothing else changes in the local budget, taxpayers would be asked to pay about $97,000 more to support schools.

A model for school consolidation

Kennebec Journal, March 16, 2008

(excerpt) Three local school districts' efforts to get the word out to voters about consolidation are winning plaudits from the state Department of Education.

The Maranacook Area Schools have traditionally relied on their "Chalkboard" newsletter to get news to residents about the district's six schools. The Winthrop school system has used "Ramblings."

As the two school systems look to merge into one regional unit, along with Fayette, their collaboration has led to the "Ramblin' Chalkboard" newsletter.

Education Commissioner Susan Gendron this week encouraged school officials around the state to use the "Ramblin' Chalkboard" as a model for similar publications in their communities.

"I think you will be impressed, as we were," Gendron wrote in an e-mail, "not only by the excellent and impartial explanation of the reorganization effort and legislative activity that might affect them, but also by the focus on the educational strengths of each of their schools and school systems. The newsletter helps to introduce people of all the communities to the educational philosophies, interesting programs, and the human and other resources that are in the school systems."

Learning Results a complete, disastrous failure

Kennebec Journal, March 14, 2008

(excerpt) In 1997, Maine's Learning Results initiative promised to set standards for promotion within Maine schools. Thousands of teachers across the state embarked on an eight-year journey to identify the standards they were going to insist upon, the tests they were going to use to measure achievement and the system they were going to install to make sure that all students graduated with certain skills and abilities.

By 2005, this initiative had completely failed.

The reasons for this failure were many. Passive resistance from teachers who opposed a standards-based environment, refusal from communities to fund the enormous costs of reteaching students who fail to meet standards, unrealistic expectations from the DOE and most disappointing of all, test results that showed the majority of Maine students either failing or only partially meeting standards.

Statewide test scores in 2003 showed that slightly less then half of Maine's 11th-grade students met or exceeded reading standards; only 26 percent met or exceeded math standards.

By 2005, the benchmarks the DOE had established in the 1990s were all being postponed or watered down to the point of ineffectiveness, and, by 2006, the department was in complete retreat although it were reluctant to admit the failure, and talked of "restructuring" and "redefining" the standards.

State trash talks school unions

Bar Harbor Times, March 7, 2008

(excerpt) On its website, the DOE wrote, “The school union structure is Maine’s highest cost form of school governance with only mixed results on performance…Maine spends $24 million more per year than necessary on the education of 26,719 students educated in school unions, and with no added academic benefit. That’s because school unions as a group spend more per student than in other types of school units with no better test results.”

The DOE went on to claim that 62 percent of the 50 most expensive K-8 school administrative units (SAUs) in the state, regardless of size, are in school unions, and that per pupil costs are higher in unions.

“In any structure that allows a Regional School Unit or regional union board to delegate to local school committees the authority to hire, fire, negotiate, or raise funds, the costs will be higher,” the DOE stated. “The higher costs in unions are part of the basis of EPS calculations and thus also raise the statewide cost of education.”

Messalonskee closes for another day as workers clear large snow buildup off roof

Morning Sentinel, March 7, 2008

(excerpt) Messalonskee High School teachers and students on Thursday got to stay home for a second straight day even though the sky was bright and the temperatures warm.

This time, the issue was snow removal -- namely shoveling five feet of snow off the back side of the high school.

"I have a 10-man crew up there this morning," School Administrative District 47 Superintendent James C. Morse Sr. said, "and they are shoveling to beat all."

Morse said the shoveling was a pre-emptive move, not an emergency response to falling ceiling tiles or any other sign of roof collapse or leakage, an issue that has become increasingly more common among school buildings in Maine this winter.

Coast, country to lose education aid

Bangor Daily News, March 7. 2008

(excerpt) Schools in general will fare a little better under Gov. John Baldacci’s latest proposal, announced Wednesday, to reduce state expenditures. And while some districts will receive increased state aid this coming year, others will get less. In some cases, the aid will be substantially less than the current year and could force school committees to consider cutting positions and programs.

"If you’re a large system in an urban area, you’re OK," said Robert Webster, superintendent of schools at Union 76, which includes Deer Isle and Stonington. "But rural and coastal areas with high valuation that [typically receive little state subsidy] will take a hit."

Valuation and student population are the driving forces in the state’s formula that determines the general purpose aid for education, or GPA, according to Education Department spokesman David Connerty-Marin.

"Most of it has to do with enrollment declines and valuation increases," Connerty-Marin said. "We always see a shift."

That formula creates some striking disparities among the districts that will see the largest increases next year and those who get hit with the largest cuts. For example, based on the governor’s proposal, Veazie would see an increase of $213,497, or 20 percent; Bangor, an increase of $962,596, or 6 percent; SAD 34 in Belfast, an increase of $889,552, or 11 percent; Augusta, an increase of $417,603, or 3 percent; SAD 68 in Dover-Foxcroft, an increase of $431,321, or 7 percent; and Portland, an increase of $1,967,486, or 16 percent.

Districts that will see large decreases include Jonesport, down $267,018, or 92 percent of its subsidy; Penobscot, down $86,603, or 65 percent; Greenville, down $227,738, or 63 percent; Sedgwick, down $199,944, or 63 percent; Deer Isle-Stonington CSD, down $376,793, or 38 percent; SAD 19 in Lubec, down $293,322, or 40 percent; and Eastport, down $357,914, or 33 percent.

David Trahan: School funding gimmick courts disaster

Bangor Daily News, Match 7, 2008

(excerpt) LD 1 also included, however, significant changes in the definition of education in Maine known as Essential Programs and Services. The intent was to identify the cost of educating students statewide before splitting this cost 55 percent state and 45 percent local. Unfortunately, by leaving this, "cost of education" undefined, it left plenty of wiggle room for our elected officials to use it as a tool for spending shifts.

Before these changes in the EPS formula, the Department of Education and the Maine Legislature paid for new programs such as laptops for junior high students ($11.4 million per year) through a dedicated account. Other programs, such as Jobs for Maine Graduates ($1.6 million) and the Maine School for Science and Mathematics ($1.7 million) as well as the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf ($6.5 million), were paid through the state’s General Fund.

Through legislation initiated in recently approved state budgets, the Legislature and the administration, through 2008-09, will have added 19 programs to the EPS formula since it was created in 2005. These programs were previously funded 100 percent by the state and now will be a shared cost on the backs of property tax payers.

The gimmick does two things. First, because of statutory language passed in LD 1, all new ramp-up education money through 2009 is exempt from the state’s spending cap limitation. This maneuver makes spending look less than it actually is.

Second, the shift from the General Fund to EPS artificially inflates the new education ramp-up money. In fiscal year 2008, more than $35 million in General Fund spending was added to EPS. This type of fiscal maneuvering accounted for $123 million of the four-year ramp-up. This money is not new subsidy, but simply a shift into EPS of existing programs to give the appearance of new money.

Many towns across Maine have not benefited from so-called new education money. In the 2006-07 fiscal year, more than 70 school units received less in school subsidies than in the previous year. In this fiscal year this trend continues and grows to 85 units.

Validation ballots draw officials’ ire

Bangor Daily News, March 6, 2008

(excerpt) The ballot for the Union 93 town of Blue Hill, for example, reads: "Do you favor the Blue Hill School Department budget for the upcoming school year that was adopted at the April 5 Town Meeting and that includes locally raised funds that exceed the required local contribution as described in the Essential Programs and Services Funding Act?"

The instructions to the voter, which are required to be included on the ballot, note that "A yes vote allows additional funds to be raised for K-12 public education" and that "a no vote means additional funds cannot be raised for K-12 public education."

That wording makes it sound as if voters are being asked to approve spending more local money than was approved at the town meeting, and that is not the case, Wittine said. The language seems designed to encourage residents to vote "no" on the validation question.

"If you read that question, how would you vote? You’d vote ‘no’ because you’d say that they want more local money and you’ve just approved spending local money at the town meeting," he said.

The language is designed to encourage defeat of the budget in the validation vote, said Robert Webster, superintendent of schools in Union 76.

Statehouse: 70 jobs to be eliminated...

Kennebec Journal, March 6, 2008

(excerpts) A new round of budget cuts proposed Wednesday by Gov. John Baldacci would eliminate more than 70 state jobs, 48 of which are currently filled.
...
Cuts in the state Department of Health and Human Services are to include 14 management positions in the mental health intensive case management division, two team leaders in child and family services, and one superintendent at the state's two mental health hospitals.
...
When it comes to state office closures, Baldacci's proposal to close a Maine Revenue Services office in Houlton would eliminate 15 jobs.
...
The third largest area of job cuts target the Department of Corrections, where staff would be reduced at two facilities that serve juvenile offenders, said Rebecca Wyke, commissioner of the Department of Administrative and Financial Services.

The Mountain View Youth Development Center in Charleston and Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland are not filled to capacity, so 16 positions will be eliminated at those facilities, she said.

Since Baldacci took office in 2003, his administration has cut about 660 state jobs. The number would be more than 760 if the new cuts are approved.

Education, Medicaid targeted in new round

Kennebec Journal, March 6, 2008

(excerpt) The departments of Education and Health and Human Services would bear the brunt of the cuts in the latest budget revision, which would trim spending at those two agencies alone by a combined total of $61.6 million.

The Department of Education faces a $34.1 million cut in funding for local education next year, including a $23.1 million reduction in direct state payments to local schools, which were scheduled to get about $1 billion from the state next year. That would slow completion of the state's move toward a requirement that it pay 55 percent of funding for local schools.

The University of Maine System, Maine Community College System and Maine Maritime Academy, which escaped unscathed in the first round of cuts, were not so lucky this time around. Baldacci wants the Legislature to cut $7 million from the UMaine System, close to $2 million from the community colleges and more than $300,000 from Maine Maritime Academy.

Palmyra school imperiled

Morning Sentinel, March 6, 2008

(excerpt) The projected deficit stems from a combination of factors, Braun said. Federal Medicaid reimbursement for special education, which brought in $550,000 to the district this year, will be cut entirely next year. State Department of Education funding toward educational services for students in foster care, which reached $190,000 this year, has been cut. There is an above average number of foster students in the district, Braun said.

"This year we got the kids but we get no money," he said.

The district will have less money to carry over to offset costs next year, leaving the district about $840,000 behind, and that is before factoring salaries and insurance increases and the soaring costs of heating fuel and diesel.

"In order to fill that hole that's probably going to be close to $2 million, you're going to have some significant reductions," Braun said. "We have to have a significant discussion about every school and every program."

State: New high school requirements should be suspended

Kennebec Journal, March 5, 2008

(excerpt) The Department of Education urged members of a legislative committee Tuesday to table until the Legislature's 2008-09 session a bill that would revise the state's high school graduation requirements.

Commissioner Susan Gendron told Education Committee members at a hearing Tuesday it would be unreasonable this school year to introduce a new set of high-school graduation requirements.

School systems across the state are grappling with lower-than-anticipated state funding as they budget for the 2008-09 school year. They are also in the midst of working out plans to consolidate to cut administrative costs and reduce the number of districts in the state.

"The timing is not right," Gendron told panelists.

School union intact despite Waterville's pull-out

Morning Sentinel, March 5, 2008

(excerpt) School officials from the three towns of Union 52 have no plans to abandon what once had been a planned eight- community consolidated school system.

That proved to be the overriding message of Winslow, China and Vassalboro school board members Tuesday night at a special meeting at China Middle School.

Such resolution comes less than three weeks after Waterville Public Schools announced its intention to pull out of the planned regional school unit.

Union 52 joins School Administrative District 47 (Oakland, Belgrade, Sidney, Rome) in keeping open the option of forming a school unit that would boast nearly 5,500 students from seven towns.

Still, Union 52 officials made clear they have some issues with the proposed unit.

Topping the list is a substantial increase in salary and benefit costs for teachers for the unit -- more than $2 million with Waterville still in the mix, nearly $1.3 million without Waterville.

"You won't offset that $2.1 million in salaries and benefits (with cost savings from consolidation)," Union 52 Assistant Superintendent Gary Smith said. "That just won't happen."

But several members of the audience argued that such a sizable hike in salaries and benefits should not be a given.

They said the increase is based on an assumption that every teacher in the unit should immediately be boosted to the highest salary and benefits packages among the member towns.

Poll calls for less spending rather than tax increase

Portland Press Herald, March 4, 2008

(excerpt) A poll released Monday found that a large majority of Maine adults favor cutting spending in order to close the state's budget gap -- and an even bigger majority of those who responded oppose raising taxes.

The results sparked immediate outcry from groups lobbying against major cuts to education and social service programs as lawmakers try to close a budget hole expected to exceed $200 million over two years.

The poll's findings also ignited a partisan squabble in Augusta, with the top House Republican arguing for large spending cuts and the top Senate Democrat saying the poll ignored the effect that such cuts would have on Maine communities.

The telephone survey, conducted by Market Decisions, a Portland-based polling firm, asked respondents for their opinions on various broad approaches to closing the budget gap. Four hundred people were surveyed from Jan. 28 to Feb. 25, and the poll had a 4.9 percent margin of error.

Forty-five percent of those surveyed said they strongly support spending cuts, while another 26 percent said they are somewhat supportive of that approach.

Maine gets low score for government

Portland Press Herald, March 4, 2008

(excerpt) Utah, Virginia and Washington state have the most effective state governments in the country, according to a scorecard released Monday by The Pew Center on the States.

The center ranked the states based on how well they manage their budgets, staffs, infrastructure and information.

Maine received one of the lowest grades, a C.

New Hampshire got a D+, the lowest score. The state is not closely monitoring its costs and performance, Pew said in a press release.

The states with the highest scores have made accountability and innovation a priority, the report said.

Breaking the bank

Kennebec Journal, March 4, 2008

(excerpt) The governor's new plan may hike some as-yet unspecified fees to avert public safety cuts that would otherwise have to be made, Farmer said.

Baldacci's latest plan will seek additional spending cuts that would affect virtually every aspect of state government, as well as local schools and Maine's public colleges and universities, Farmer said Monday.

"You're going to see stuff everywhere," Farmer said of the upcoming cuts, including reductions at the departments of Education and Health and Human Services, which together account for most state spending.

That is noteworthy because Baldacci's previously announced social-service cuts, which would affect foster parents, the elderly, mentally ill Mainers and others, have come under attack from affected groups and raised concerns in the Legislature.

That initial plan called for more than $60 million in social-service cuts, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

"I think folks who try to convince the public this can all be done without pain are doing a disservice to the public," said Sen. Joseph Perry, D-Bangor, who co-chairs the Legislature's Taxation Committee.

"I think the public is looking for a balanced approach" that blends spending cuts, savings withdrawals and new revenues, Perry said.

State tells school officials they must justify withdrawal from merger talks

Morning Sentinel, March 4, 2008

(excerpt) The school system may make a great case for why it has withdrawn from consolidation talks with other school systems, but the decision ultimately rests with the state.

"Just because they said they want to withdraw doesn't mean that they can," state Department of Education spokesman David Connerty-Marin said Monday. "The commissioner has to review that and one of the things she's going to be looking at is the question of sustainability."

Waterville recently notified the state that it stopped discussing merging with School Administrative District 47, based in Oakland, and School Union 52, based in Winslow.

Waterville Superintendent Eric Haley said that no matter which way he worked the figures, he found that merging would cost the city a lot of money.

State law requires regional school units to have 2,500 students except where circumstances justify an exception. Waterville has about 1,900 students.

Cracked support beam forces school to close in Hiram

Portland Press Herald, March 3, 2008

(excerpt) Vacchiano said heavy snow that accumulated on the roof of the 41-year-old building this weekend is likely to blame for the cracked support beam.

A storm dropped about 7 inches of snow on parts of western Maine on Saturday, the latest in a series of snowstorms that have battered the state this winter.

Vacchiano said the school district does not clear roofs after heavy snow.