Election 2009 – Question 3 – School consolidation repeal being sought

By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
    Voters will decide Tuesday if they prefer the new school district consolidation efforts or if the state should revert back to the way things were.
    Question 3 will ask voters, “Do you want to repeal the 2007 law on school district consolidation and restore the laws previously in effect?”
    David Connerty-Marin, director of communications for the Maine Department of Education, said the state has been working on reorganization for the past two and-a-half years.
    “We think it’s been very successful and are certainly supportive of it,” he said. “A very substantial amount of time and effort has been put in both by the local districts and at the state level, and we’ve put some money into it, as well, to support school districts that are working toward reorganizing.
    “Ninety-eight school districts have consolidated into 26 Regional School Units. Overwhelmingly those communities are doing great work,” he said. “At least 20 of the 26 new RSUs are very deeply engaged in educational planning … finding ways to combine the best that each of the former districts had to offer. They’re looking to share the strengths of each of their districts.”
    Connerty-Marin reminds people that repealing the law “does not undo the legal transactions that have taken place where ownership of buildings has transferred and previously existing legal entities have dissolved.”
    “You can’t just simply make them reappear,” he said. “You have to have a process for that to happen, and the Legislature would have to come up with that process if any of those new districts did want to go back to the way they were. We don’t know what would happen; it would really be up to the Legislature to decide. The Legislature has until the middle of February to figure out how to enact that.
    “If the law doesn’t get repealed, and we don’t think it will,” said Connerty-Marin, “then we need to be ready Nov. 4 to help the many districts that are actually planning to go ahead with reorganization but are waiting to see what happens on Nov. 3 before they take any next steps. We have an immediate need to be ready to work with the districts that have an interest in moving forward.”
    Connerty-Marin said he hopes voters will keep an open mind when stepping into the voting booth Tuesday.
    “I think the communities that have been the most successful in this have been focusing on the educational opportunities for their kids, and that’s what I hope people will be looking at,” he said. “When you look at enrollment that’s declining quite significantly and funding which is about to take a very severe hit, do you want to spend that money outside the classroom or inside the classroom? Do you want it to go into programming for kids, and do you want to make sure that your students have the best opportunities that are available not only in their schools, but in all of the surrounding schools?
    “If the answer is ‘Yes,’ then I think we need to look at consolidating the districts and creating more educational opportunities for kids and saving money along the way,” said Connerty-Marin.
    On the other side of the issue is the Maine Coalition to Save Schools.
    “We want to repeal the school consolidation law,” said Mars Hill’s Carolee Hallett, coalition co-chair. “It would be a cost savings to all communities because the law itself – to this point – has not saved money, it has cost money.
    “Mandatory consolidation already has cost the state an estimated $4 million to enforce, but the Department of Education says it’s too soon to quantify any real savings at the local level,” she said. “We support doing something to be more fiscally responsible, but we already have a collaboration where we do all the ordering of our paper and books together to get a more reasonable price. We’re committed to finding, developing and implementing all the cost effective methods to provide education that we can. We believe that locally it can be done much more efficiently and more beneficial to the students than try to force a group of towns who really don’t have a lot in common into one RSU.”
    Hallett said the law simply is not fair.
    “The law was definitely aimed at destroying the rural part of our state as far as our schools are concerned,” she said, “when urban areas were not required to merge with anyone. There are 65 districts, representing 55 percent of the state’s enrollment, that were not forced to consolidate because of size, location or other special dispensations granted by the Department of Education. Another 126 got no exemption and face $5 million in penalties next year for exercising their rights at the ballot box to reject the consolidation mandate. The law is far from being fair.”
    Hallett said the state’s initial plan called for SAD 42 (Mars Hill and Blaine), SAD 45 (Washburn, Wade and Perham), the Bridgewater School Department and the Easton School Department to become one single RSU.
    “There were no clear savings in cost. In fact, it would have cost SAD 42 alone $150,000 for the next three years to meet ‘leveling up costs,’” said Hallett. “We also could find no educational benefits for joining forces. The loss of local control was another big reason why we voted not to merge. Another big item was that there was no provision in the law to ever get out of an RSU. Once you form an RSU, there was no plan to get out like there was when we formed SADs.”
    Hallett maintains local schools are better left to the local communities.
    “We believe that we can run our schools more efficiently from here than they can in Augusta,” said Hallett. “It’s not going to cost a penny to repeal that law. Everybody will go back to the way they were except work toward a common goal of enlarging the collaborations that we have.”