The widespread compliance that Gendron speaks of is not happening in many parts of the state. Is it compliance to just change your district name to RSU so and so? Rural Maine can not comply because our Citizens cannot afford to pay over 9000 per student the way Bangor and other "model" districts currently pay per student. Rural Maine can not afford consolidation!

Of course she supports it! She stood next to Baldacci when he proposed this with little thought, or data to back up the proposal. Moves like this should be Data driven with the best interest of the children in mind. Consolidation is in no ones best interest and the data for rural Maine is clear, we CANNOT afford to let this happen, and we should not be penalized for protecting our tax payers.

You are missing the point of this hot topic of RSU and consolidation. Do you really bekieve the purpose was to combine administration and save millions? Wrong! This is aimed directly at rural Maine and small schools. The intent is and always was to close schools in Aroostook and Washington counties primarily. Where did Jim Rier come from? Hello? My question is, where do all the unemployed teachers, aides, ed techs, bus drivers, cooks etc end up when all is said and done? There are soooo many jobs available in the state I guess they'll not have a problem getting a fresh start. Thanks, Jim, John, and Susan. Shows Ya Thinkin

jbsmy3 I agree with you. Ask the Ellsworth RSU how they like consolidation..they are going to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in Federal funding because now they are too big to be eligible for those funds. The State said "It won't be too bad because we will use our what we save in penalties to help offset the difference. Did you know they intend to penalize schools that did not consolidate using FEDERAL STIMULUS FUNDS as well as the eps money to base the penalties on? Amazing-how can they use federal money to punish small schools? Kind of underhanded, I think. Probably not legal either. That money was intended to help fund education in All of Maine, now the State will keep half of it in their coffers on the backs of students in small rural schools. This feels more like dealing with the mob rather than government, but there really isn't much difference between the two anymore anyway.

ShowsYaThinkin, I'm ashamed to say that Jim Rier comes from Machias but it is obvious he has forgotten his roots and become a flunky of the state machine that is trying to grab control and money from his home county! This whole issue is just a power grab and an attempt to force long bus rides and extra costs on families in one of the most rural and poorest parts of the state! I personally don't care if the legislature votes for the repeal or not. I will have as many people vote for the repeal when it hits the ballot as I can and see if this fiasco is even close to as popular as the state puppets say it is! I don't believe it is. Yes the poorer districts will take a huge hit as salaries and costs in the new RSU's stabilize at the most expensive levels that are present in the most expensive town that joins the new unit. A great example would be Brewer. Ask the smaller towns AND Brewer if they are going to come out whole in this boondoogle!!

Gendron lies.

HaHa "compliance" I guess is the right word in this case. The state is basically holding a gun to the heads of the towns and saying comply or face the penalty. Thats why you have 80% compliance if that is even really the case. It may be 80% of the students population wise but its all in the more urban areas of the state, if you actually looked at the percentage of towns or schools it would be much much smaller. The reason why many of the larger communities have complied is because for many is was not much of a change for them, they already met most of the requirements, they had enough students in their existing districts already. The rest that "complied" folded under the pressure from the state. Thank god there are a number of officials from the rural communities that are willing to fight the state on this. For many communities it is going to cost them more not less. Even some of the larger ones like Ellsworth are realizing that it was a bad idea. I do think that this whole consolidation thing does save THE STATE money but it does not save the taxpayers money they will just pay more in local taxes. Many towns are finding out that is the case. The consolidation does not work for rural Maine. Its just like the jail consolidation, the state takes it over and then saves money by reducing its share of operating the jails. The state can say wow look at all the money we saved in our budget while the county taxes go up.

When are the people of Maine going to wake up? The Governor and his wonderful Mate Gendron needs to be kicked out of Office before they have the school system so screwed up that Maine gets to have stupid kids from the mess.

The Commissioner's $36 million in "savings" is that only because the state eliminated $36 million from GPA in order to balance their budget. If I owe you $100, but only give you $80, I've had $20 in savings, but you haven't.

Amazing. The very communities that would benefit most from district consolidation have leaders that oppose it. Apparently, they'd rather be small and poor rather than larger and have access to greater and more diverse educational programs. All in the name of "local control"; an elusive concept no one can define yet is used to maintain the (expensive and duplicative) status quo.

Mainecommenter... have you ever been to Washington County? Have you ever driven from Lubec to Stueben? There is no way the communities would benefit from this forced consolidation. There are too few kids in too large a geographical area for this to work. There are some great schools with excellent diverse educational programs in the area. 2 years ago Elm Street School in East Machias' 8th graders scored highest in the state on the annual testing; there were 14 students in that class. Most all went on to Washington Academy which also offers excellent and divers educational programs to inclue Chinese as a foreign language and a variety of vocational programs as well.

Misslepew:I attended a school district in northern Maine as small as the ones you refer to. I know firsthand the value of having an education system that does more than "get by". Again, you're succumbing to the fear tactics of the status quo supporters. This is a district consolidation, not a school consolidation.

This consolidation thing could have worked and it could have improved education and saved money. The minute they started to exempt all the little fiefdoms from consolidating it was doomed. No teachers could be cut. Why? We have too many teachers. Our student enrollment is declining and so is our revenue. Maine superintendents have known for many years that something needed to be done about the skyrocketing costs of education. They should have been the ones on the front lines promoting this. Instead they put up every road block imaginable and including getting their school boards to extend their contracts out. We can't realize any cost savings during the first couple of years because of the payouts of these contracts and keeping every teacher on staff even if the student population doesnt warrant that level of staffing. Why is it that we Mainers are so averse to change? Just think of the possibilities that could have come out of this effort. We'll never know.

Sunnyside, perhaps the Superintendents you refer to are the same ones that allowed students the day off to attend the hearing? :)

The State wants us to believe that the "consolidation" is of Superintendents and such. The Reality is that this creates a huge bureaucracy and loss of school choice for many towns. As long as Joe the Tax Man Perry is in office there will be no tax savings. It will just go to another State Program. So leave schools alone, Repeal this fiasco in November!