By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
HOULTON — The ongoing consolidation discussions between SAD 70 and SAD 29 took another step forward Thursday evening, as officials from both boards, as well as members of the public, learned more about the process.
School board members from SAD 70 came into the meeting hoping to get some indication from the SAD 29 school board as to whether they would support the Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS) process. That plan did not happen as SAD 29 did not have a full board present for the meeting and was only interested in gathering information.
“This is just an informational, informal meeting,” SAD 29 board chairman Liz Anderson said. “We’re very interested in hearing your comments and any questions you may have in relation to an AOS.”
Marc Gendron, superintendent for the newly formed AOS 99 (Bridgewater, SAD 42 and SAD 20), was the featured speaker for the evening. Gendron is in his first year as the superintendent of AOS 99 and offered his expertise on the subject of consolidation.
“We combined on July 1 and went through some of the same processes that you guys have been going through for the past year,” Gendron said.
Gendron explained Fort Fairfield was initially involved in joining an RSU with the Caribou and Limestone school systems, but that plan was voted down in Fort Fairfield by more than 90 percent of that town’s voters.
“There were a lot of concerns in town about loss of control with an RSU,” he said. “The penalties we received prompted us to come up with an alternative plan.”
An AOS differs from an RSU in a number of ways.
First, governance of an AOS is different from an RSU. With an RSU, the two school boards would have been dissolved in favor of one larger RSU school board. The consolidation group spent considerable time debating how that board would be comprised before agreeing to a 13-member board, using a weighted vote system. Nine of those seats were proposed to be from SAD 29, while SAD 70 would have four.
Under an AOS, both school districts would keep their existing school boards and a third board, comprised of members from each would be created for core functions and duties of the group.
Secondly, the budget process for an RSU calls for the creation of one, unified budget for the two districts, which has been a sticking point for many during consolidation discussions. Under an AOS plan, both districts would keep separate budgets.
A full comparison between the two styles of government can be found online at: www.maine.gov/education/reorg/rsu_aos_comparison.pdf.
Gendron said the AOS is hard on the central office, but that was the only group to be affected by the merger. He explained even though his transportation director falls under the purview of AOS consolidation, the individual bus drivers saw no change to their daily routines.
He also said there was much benefit to forming an AOS because it allowed both districts to get a first-hand look at what works well in one district, so that it could be copied into the other district. In his example, Gendron said the food services programs in SAD 20 and 42 were vastly different and have since been streamlined to be more efficient.
The amount of cost savings by forming the AOS was minimal, Gendron said. The big savings was that neither SAD 20 nor SAD 42 would be penalized by the state for being non-conforming. SAD 70 was fined $93,000 by the state for its status as a non-conforming school district. That figure will rise each year that the district remains non-conforming.
SAD 29 is not being penalized by the state as the district’s student enrollment was large enough that it did not need to consolidate with another district.
The two school boards would first have to approve the plan of action, and then the general public would need to approve the matter in the form of a referendum vote before it would be finalized.
The matter will be further discussed at each of the two district’s board meetings in October, with a vote on the subject expected by both boards. SAD 29 meets Monday, Oct. 4 at 6 p.m. at the Wellington School in Monticello. SAD 70 meets Monday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. in the Superintendent’s conference room. Both meetings are open to the public.