Staff Writer
HOULTON — Plans for the proposed consolidation of central offices between SAD 29 and SAD 70 suffered a setback Monday evening when the Houlton school board threw a “curveball” at its superintendent.
After two months of discussions between the two boards, each school district was required to send a “Letter of Intent” to the Maine Department of Education stating their desire to form a unified Regional School Unit. SAD 70’s school board signed its Letter of Intent at its February board meeting and was anticipating SAD 29 would do the same at Monday’s meeting.
Instead, the board voted against signing any such letter, causing SAD 29 Superintendent Steven Fitzpatrick to wonder what exactly it was the school board wanted.
“That vote was a complete curveball to me,” Fitzpatrick said Tuesday morning. “I’m trying to discern what direction the board want to go. It’s disconcerting for sure. There were only two board members who voted ‘no’ on having the board open the dialogue [with SAD 70].”
Fitzpatrick was referring to the vote SAD 29 took at its January meeting when the board voted 11-2 to enter into discussions with SAD 70 for a possible merger of central offices.
By not agreeing to sign the Letter of Intent, Fitzpatrick said that alone did not mean the talks with SAD 70 were dead in the water.
“I will be seeking more information from the board on which direction they want to go,” Fitzpatrick said. “Those that voted ‘no,’ I plan to speak with to see if they want us to cease talks or keep going forward.
Complicating the matter is that the sub-committees established by each school board to hammer out the details of a joint RSU board were scheduled to meet last night to discuss the next step in merger talks. One joint board meeting was held in January with the board reviewing information presented by a legal consultant.
The board started its discussion of the proposed merger with information presented by Fitzpatrick that it could consider becoming an AOS (Alternative Organizational Structure) with SAD 70, which would allow the Hodgdon district to avoid having a $90,000 penalty in the upcoming school budget cycle. That plan called for a much-more aggressive timeline to complete.
Because SAD 70 is a non-conforming district, it will suffer the $90,000 penalty for the upcoming 2010-11 school budget. That penalty increases each year the district remains non-conforming.
On Monday, some board members questioned how the merger would impact SAD 29 and whether it was needed in the first place.
“Will this consolidation increase taxes for Houlton taxpayers,” asked board member Kim Thompson.
“I can’t answer that because the plan has not been developed,” Fitzpatrick said. “Our position is any cost increases to SAD 29 is not acceptable. That has already been communicated.”
Fitzpatrick said it was his recommendation that the board sign the Letter of Intent so that discussions could continue in good faith between the two boards.
The SAD 29 board initially approved signing its Letter of Intent, but not without having to go the district’s weighted vote system. The board voted 5-4 to sign the letter, with board members Elizabeth Anderson, Frances Grant, Tammy Goetsch, Sandra Wilkins and Cynthia Hillman-Forbush voting in favor of the measure. Members Bruce Clark, Crystal Hagerman, Lori Holmes and Kim Thompson opposed the measure.
Absent from the meeting were board members Angela Wotton, Jennifer Johnston and Laurie Bartlett.
Using the weighted-vote method, the measure passed 437-345. The weighted vote system was used because the 5-4 vote did not represent a majority of the board. It marked the first time in several years that the weighted vote system was needed to decide a vote.
A few moments after the vote took place, board member Thompson asked for the vote to be reconsidered, which required a two-thirds majority. That measure passed 6-3 with Clark, Goetsch, Hagerman, Hillman-Forbush, Holmes and Thompson voting in favor and Anderson, Grant and Wilkinson opposed.
The board then voted 5-4 to not sign the Letter of Intent, with Hillman-Forbush changing her stand to a ‘no’ vote. Attempts to reach Hillman-Forbush for comment on why she changed her vote were not successful by presstime.
At the crux of the issue Monday night for at least some of the board members was the need for SAD 29 to do anything, since it was already a conforming RSU. Others questioned the aggressive timeline the state had proposed for any schools looking to form AOS, which was an alternative avenue the board could have followed.
If the two districts did agree to form a combined RSU, the measure would have to be approved by voters in both school districts via a referendum question. A new school board would be created, with the existing two boards dissolved. One superintendent would be hired with one central office staff. Those hirings could be existing personnel or completely new individuals hired by the newly-formed RSU board.
RSU mergers are the result of the state’s reorganization plan that was passed in June 2007. That plan was created to reduce administrative expenses between smaller school districts by consolidating central offices. It also encourages districts, to engage in academic and administrative planning, strategic planning and curriculum alignment.
An RSU, according to the state of Maine Web site, is “a combination of two or more municipalities who pool all their educational resources to educate all students. One school committee (comprised of representatives from each of the municipalities) administers the education of grades K-12 through a superintendent of schools. Budget approval is by majority vote of those present and voting at a district budget meeting followed by approval at referendum. The member municipalities share the RSU costs based on a formula which includes state valuation and/or number of pupils.”
An AOS is “a combination of two or more school administrative units joined together for the purpose of providing administrative and sometimes educational services. Administrative services provided by the AOS are system administration (a superintendent and the superintendent’s office), special education administration, transportation administration and the business functions of accounting, reporting, payroll, financial management, purchases and audit.
“Each member entity maintains its own budget, has its own school board, and is operated in every way as a separate unit except for the administrative services and those educational services indicated in the AOS reorganization plan. Budget approval is by majority vote of those present and voting at district budget meetings followed by approval at referendum. The member entities share the AOS costs based on a formula specified in the AOS reorganization plan.”
For SAD 70, the move to join with SAD 29 is a necessity. SAD 70 had previously been in discussion with SAD 25 (Stacyville, Sherman, Mount Chase and Patten) and CSD 9 (Crystal, Dyer Brook, Island Falls, Merrill, Oakfield and Smyrna). Several meetings between those three school systems had been held, but the SAD 70 school board voted 7-2 at its Dec. 14 meeting, to instead explore the possibility of consolidating central offices with SAD 29 by joining their RSU.
For SAD 29, however, the consolidation is not an absolute need in the immediate future. SAD 29 is already an RSU, having received permission from the state Department of Education in March 2009 to become its own RSU based on enrollment figures of 1,300 students in the district. The minimum number a group can have to form a “conforming” RSU is 1,200 students.
Show of solidarity
Monday’s three-and-a-half hour meeting was moved from the Superintendent’s Conference Room to the high school cafeteria to accommodate the large gathering of teachers who attended the meeting. Most of the teachers in attendance wore articles of red clothing as a show of solidarity and to send a message of dissatisfaction with the school board on its contract negotiations.
“Hopefully we can move forward and get that resolved in the near future,” Fitzpatrick said.
In other agenda items, the board:
• Set Thursday, March 4 as a strategic plan meeting.
• Set Tuesday, March 23 at 6 p.m. at Southside School as it budget meeting. The board will review the first draft of the 2010-11 budget at that time.
• Heard a presentation from Dan Jacobs and Todd Willard on the Bird Farm.
• Approved the following coaching positions: Shawn Graham, varsity baseball; Jamie Hunt, junior varsity baseball; Ben Drew, junior high baseball; Marc Faulkingham, varsity softball; Jean Maunder, varsity tennis; Todd Willard, junior high tennis, intramurals and boys volleyball; and Bruce Nason, girls volleyball.
The next regular meeting of the SAD 29 board will be Monday, April 5 at 6 p.m. in the Superintendent’s Conference Room.
