I'm not interested in seeing one nickel of my tax money being used to fund redundant administrations in every small town in Maine. I say let Machias have their own school, without consolidation, provided that they are willing to fund the entire thing. If not, then I say get used to consolidation and find a way to move on to some other cause.

Let them pay their own way. If they fail, so be it. No more tax dollars for the wasteful in Rural Maine, no matter where that may be. If they want to be their own state, let them, see how long they last. As long as it took, to read the last sentence.

Unbelievable. The very three people (County Commissioners) who would know more than anyone the benefits and efficiencies of regionalism give it up in favor of the mob. Too bad the kids have to suffer for their parent's parochialism.

3 comments from 3 clueless people!

The way John Baldacci, and the Maine Dep. of ED. went about this consolidation led to thefailure,and it has failed. Most towns that voted it in did so because they were large enough not to have to change. Rural Maine is truly taking it on the chin by what use to be one of their own. Just so you know John, 95 doesn't end at Bangor! Go north, east or west of Bangor and this "plan has failed. Consolidation not only threatens small schools and decent pupil to teacher ratios, it threatens a Maine way of life. As a society we have no greater duty than to educate our young. If the DOE had put the time and effort into helping small schools that they have trying to force consolidation, we all could have reaped the rewards and our childrens education would have benefitted. I thought John Baldacci did good work in Washington, now I sure wish he would have stayed there!

Consolidate NOW !!!!!!!!!!! So tired of seeing my tax money go to administration costs then education. Each adminstrator has their own little empire fueled by our tax money. Consolidate, fire the administrators and hire some more teachers instead.

SAD #33 and Allagash (SAD #10) did not combine; SAD #27 and #10 did. Allagash closed its school years ago and had been sending students to Fort Kent anyway. Until the AOS model arrived, though, even those two systems didn't combine and then it took two votes.

As to paying administrators: There is NOTHING in the law which requires eliminating central office positions. There IS a requirement that administrators' salaries be paid if their contracts extended beyond the consolidation.

Finally, most large school systems were exempt from the law. There were no consolidation savings there except for those the Governor/Maine Department of Education/Legislature "booked" in 2007 to make their accounting work.

The school consolidation law, as it was written, was terribly flawed. It was rushed through, with no regard to the possibility that there could be flaws, and absolutely no provisions for addressing the iniquities. Consolidation could work for many school districts if it were done properly. This law doesn't. Scrap it, and start over. And this time Governor, put a little thought into it, and try to do it right.

Who wrote the school consolidation law? Was it former students who had to ride a bus or a boat to another district to enable them to take U.S. government?

Washington county has reapeated gotten a bad deal from DOE funding changes. A few years ago it was the Essential Servies or whatever funding formula change, and districts there lost big due to population and income formulas. They made due with less. I have no reason to believe that this new formula would benefit them in any way. I don't blame them for going it alone. Augusta abandoned Washington county years ago.

meant to say repeatedly...

It's amazing that our population and school enrollments are way down and people still don't see the light. School consolidation is the smartest way to gett he best bang for our buck. Our kids will be the ones gaining the benefit from consolidating schools. They will be able to offer many more programs for our kids. Washington County has and will continue to be ignored by Augusta and is dying slowly. We need to start consolidating services to make our communities attractive to live in.

The notion that small rural schools are "wasteful" and "inefficient" has been thoroughly discredited by the empirical research (that means, the facts regarding what has actually happened when sparsely populated rural schools consolidate districts -- not some theoretical model likening children to widgets or cookies baked in various-sized batches.) Admittedly, it flies in the face of our assumptions about efficiency, but those the opposite of those assumptions have been well-documented. School efficiencies are NOT size -dependent, and, in fact, small rural schools do more with less and have a greater impact ameliorating the effects of poverty than larger ones. This bill enshrines into law the vitriol exhibited by Bangorian and brianwhite toward rural aspirations that, while wholeheartedly shared by Commissioner Gendron, is utterly undeserved. The joke will be on them, as taxpayers, should this law stand, because they will be NO SAVINGS, and will have less control over what to do about spiraling costs. West Virginia has proven that in a painful experiment in 1990. I am a taxpayer too. I was brought up believing consolidation would be best for children until the verdict came in -- "Yes" on 3.

So much misinformation out there.. Has anyone actually contacted a newly consolidated RSU? Not an AOS, but an RSU, that's one budget, one payroll. Not 11 different payrolls. Aroostook County does have one RSU. With 300+ full time employees on the payroll. Talk about as rural as you can get......has anyone asked them or any of the RSU's that have formed if they are saving money...if it is helping students. NO! No one is asking them. Unbelievable. Because there is so much misinformation out there! CALL AN RSU SCHOOL DISTRICT - ask for the Superintendent and ask him or her if they think consolidation was a good idea and why or why not. That is where you need to get the information from. These school districts have only been consolidated for almost 4 months now, effective July 1, 2009, and no one knows how much work has gone on in these superintendent's offices. The question on the ballot is misleading because it talks about the 2007 law. It was made law in 2007, but consolidation didn't take effect until 4 months ago. And it's up for repeal? Give it some time.....These RSU's have been working diligently behind the scense in getting new tax payer id #'s, new tax exempt certificates, notifications to all vendors. New credit applications, new bank bids, auditing bids, insurance bids, they are exhausted, but they see how efficient it is becoming and how much more it will be. One RSU cut 2 positions in the central office and closed down one office. Less phone lines, copiers, computers, printers, electricity, heating fuel.....just the beginning. Better use of technology......finding that some people still don't know to use spreadsheets or mail merge....doing everything out the long way.....That's the business side of school budgets.....the overhead.....so what has gone on on the academic side of the budget? Smaller schools now have access to a curriculum coordinator, gifted and talented, regional programs such as alternative ed, and special education.......Better use of funds. Only makes good financial sense - spend less on overhead and more on academics. 96 districts consolidated into 24 RSU's. That's 33% of the students in the state. The majority of districts with the largest amount of students in the state - 50+% didn't have to consolidate because they are already running as efficiently as they can. The law is not perfect, but it shouldn't be flat out repealed. It should be tweaked as we move forward to ensure that funding is going towards educating our children, not a large amount going toward the administration side of education. I am voting NO on 3....I do not want to repeal the 2007 consolidation law.

Well said, Muguet! Absolutely spot on. The only thing I'd add is that folks from the "big cities" don't understand how our schools are the hearts and souls of our small communities. The real value of these don't show on a spreadsheet. I say this as a parent of school children and as a thirty year educator who moved from the big city to here in order to appreciate such value. Overthrow this stupidly concocted plan. By the way, this state's Education Department is an embarrassment. Only wish we could vote to overthrow them, too.

You're right about the Education Department, soothsayer. They are framing the argument in a way that pits rural children against taxpayers, when, indeed, their interests are the same. It pains me to see the tirades against small, rural schools in some of these threads -- it is not substantiated by facts.

I live in Aroostook County, bargainhunter, and am quite familiar with the process. I support collaboration wherever possible, and applaud the implementation. School Unions have existed for many years and accomplish this nicely. (This administration is wholeheartedly against this, as the goal is ultimately school closures -- the research is clear on this, in its own "model" in Arkansas. Consolidation of POWER is not necessary, and leads to larger communities foisting inefficiencies upon smaller ones, often liquidating their small, highly-efficient schools diverting funds from the classroom, where they will have the greatest impact, and into transportation and construction costs -- with accompanying achievement declines, especially in the rural poor. Further, taxpayer savings are not realized.

muguet said: "It pains me to see the tirades against small, rural schools in some of these threads -- it is not substantiated by facts."

Muguet, please note that we're talking about consolidated districts, not larger schools. People in most of America (where counties manage the schools, not multi-municipal districts) would wonder what pot of gold your discovered to justify the luxury of having one superintendent for one high school.