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.
(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.
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