Group aims to cut confusion on school consolidation
Fern Desjardins and Scott Porter
Now that the presidential election is over, Maine voters are turning their attention to the school district referendums in their towns. We are asked to digest a lot of information in the reorganization plans.
This is not an easy task. The plans explain how decisions will be made by a large school board, how money and costs will be shared, and what will happen to school property and the like. The committees that wrote the plans are holding informational meet-ings to inform voters about the details before the votes (which must happen before the end of January).
Confusing the situation even more are editorials, media releases from the Department of Education, and neighbors’ discussions at the corner store. The governor and the Department of Education are pushing this hard, reminding towns that they will be penalized financially if they vote no. Many residents, however, believe that handing over their stake in their community’s schools is the first nail in the coffin for their schools and perhaps their communities.
The Maine Small Schools Coalition has produced a useful document to help voters evaluate the plans in their regions. It asks, “Does this Plan look like it will accomplish the goals of the reorganization law?” That’s about as basic as it gets when it comes to accountability.
The coalition flier suggests that residents go to the public information sessions and ask four basic questions (each one based on the goals of the law):
1. Will this plan save us money?
2. Will this plan improve learning for our children?
3. Will this plan give us choice over important decisions involving our schools?
4. Will this plan be fair to all towns and citizens?
Ask for details. Make sure that the plan itself spells out how and where the new Regional School Unit or Alternative Organizational Structure will save money, improve learning, provide a voice in decisions, and be fair. (For a full copy of the four questions with follow-up questions, see www.mdischools.net.)
If the evidence convinces you that the plan will do these things, then support it. If the evidence does not — or if it’s not specific and not actually in the plan — then do not support it.
Consolidating school districts and schools and terminating local school boards will change the face of public education in Maine. It will be costly in human and financial terms for some school systems. It’s absolutely essential that Maine voters have all the information possible when they cast their votes.
Keep in mind that the Legislature and the administration have stacked the deck behind the RSU and AOS plans by penalizing towns that vote no. Many Mainers find this distasteful. Some consider it unconstitutional to meddle in the democratic process this way. All the more reason to make certain that the plans either have the goods or not. When a town votes no it will be for good, legally defensible reasons.
Fern Desjardins is superintendent of schools for SAD 33. Scott Porter is superintendent of schools for School Union 102 and the East Machias Municipal School District.
On 11/11/08 at 8:40 AM,
Mainecommenter wrote:
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OK, I'll play the Superintendents' game:
1. Will this plan save us money? Yes. Take, for instance, the amount of time it takes for an administrator to prepare and attend a school board meeting...then multiply it by as many school boards as there are in a school union. Is this an effective use of a chief administrator's time? Then consider the decision making process it takes to develop, for example, inter-district agreements for any cost-sharing. Even the most die-hard proponents of the status quo must shake their heads at this rube goldberg approach. As different as public bodies are from, say, a manufacturing operation, one can't deny that streamlining the decision making process and creating efficiencies of scale can significantly reduce costs.
2. Will this plan improve learning for our children? Yes. Having come from a poorer school district that jettisoned art, shop, and home economics for all elementary school students, I believe that larger scale school districts will have more and better resources for educational excellence. How many of us want to send out children to schools that only provide "the basics"?
3. Will this plan give us choice over important decisions involving our schools? Yes. Nothing has changed except creating larger school districts. This was the same arguments opponents of the Sinclair Act made when it was proposed. "Local control" has been a rallying cry of those supporting an all-too-expensive status quo.
4. Will this plan be fair to all towns and citizens? Um, what about fair to the young people attending the schools? Currently, there are wealthy and poor school districts. Are these Superintendents just as concerned with educational equality among Maine's students...no matter the town in which they reside?
I am astounded at the lack of leadership for this proposal and support for the status quo by some Superintendents...those who, by their jobs and passion of education, should know better.
On 11/11/08 at 9:47 AM,
Sunnyside wrote:
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Well said MaineCommenter. The status quo is exactly what the superintendents want. Don't mess up the nice little system they have built for themselves. Do you recall the recent double dipping scam they pulled ..allowing administrators to "retire" and then go directly back to the same job with full pay and their retirement ....pretty good gig if you can get it. I think that "loop" was closed but before some took advantage. So now they hire one of Maine's most respected journalists to be their PR person....got to give them credit. BUT ASK YOURSELVES WHERE DOES THIS MONEY COME FROM? Towns and communities across the state pay to be members of the superintendents and school boards association.
Its interesting and telling that the first question posed by these two is about money and not quality of education.
On 11/11/08 at 11:29 AM,
CattailMom wrote:
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The reason the Maine Small School Coalition's first two questions are about money is because that's what the school reorganization law is all about, too. The law contains little which could convince anyone that it was ever intnded to provide real benefits for students. Maybe those will come in time - and well might have anyway - but the law's purpose two years ago was to help balance the state budget by cutting $37million from the Department of Education's piece of that pie. Many of the currently-employed superintendents will still be employed by the new RSUs and AOSs because they have contracts which must - by the reorganization law - be assumed by the new school systems.
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