BREWER, Maine — Residents and local officials raised quite a few questions at Thursday’s public hearing on the proposed Regional School Unit 15, designed to consolidate Brewer and four neighboring school districts.
Money was a focus of the questions, which touched on teacher salaries, projected additional costs for forming the district, and penalties for not joining.
Brewer teachers and staffers make a lot more than their counterparts in Dedham, Orrington, SAD 63 and CSD 8 — the proposed RSU 15 partners — and projected costs for aligning salaries is $2.74 million over the first three years, the draft plan states.
“We looked at each individual employee in the proposed RSU, [and] we placed them on Brewer’s salary schedule,” Superintendent Daniel Lee said. “We made the assumption that we could hold Brewer with no raise for two years” to calculate the figures.
A letter from Education Commissioner Susan Gendron that says it is a mistake to assume contracts will be uniform districtwide, and that “the law requires a common contract, it does not require that salary scales be identical across the new RSU” also caused considerable comment.
City Councilor Manley DeBeck was one who voiced his disagreement with Gendron’s comments, part of which were reported in a Tuesday Bangor Daily News article.
“The foundation of a union is all the members are treated equal,” he said. “To say, in the newspaper, that she don’t think everybody has to be paid the same is the most ludicrous thing I’ve read. That’s discrimination. You can’t do it.”
Brewer, Dedham, Orrington, SAD 63 and CSD 8 have worked for 1½ years to create RSU 15 under the state’s new school consolidation law. SAD 63 serves Clifton, Eddington and Holden, while CSD 8 serves the communities of Aurora, Amherst, Great Pond and Osborn.
Residents in the 10 communities will vote Jan. 27 in a thumbs-up or thumbs-down referendum about joining the new consolidated school district.
“Should you vote this plan down, there is a $244,000 penalty” for Brewer, Lee said “You would continue to have a penalty every year” until a consolidation plan is approved by residents.
If residents approve the plan, Brewer would be responsible for 43 percent of the costs of running the new district, including paying the nearly $2.8 million in projected additional costs for aligning salaries, he said.
“We put a lot of hours into this and I don’t think it’s fair,” said Gail Kelly, former city councilor who sat on the RSU 15 planning committee and who serves as state director for U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe. “I don’t think what the state is doing to us is fair. The state has basically issued an unfunded mandate.”
Brewer Elementary School Principal Janet McIntosh said the consolidation plan does save money, but it’s the state that saves, and residents who pay.
“It’s a cost-shifting plan,” she said. “There is some great brilliance to the plan, it just doesn’t benefit us.”
More than one resident stood at the lectern and said joining the consolidated school district does not make sense when comparing dollars and cents.
Jerry Goss, who is a Brewer High School district trustee, said the state’s plan has always been about saving money. Then he questioned why the city would be penalized for not joining a unit that would cost residents more.
“Why are you going to penalize us for being fiscally responsible?” he asked.
DeBeck said that as a city councilor, it’s his job to keep taxes as low as possible.
“You elected me to watch your money,” he said. “Vote no on this.”
Planned Wednesday night public meetings for SAD 63 and Orrington were canceled by the snowstorm and have been rescheduled. SAD 63’s meeting is 6:30 p.m. Jan. 15 at Eddington Elementary School and Orrington’s meeting is 6 p.m. Jan. 20 in the gym at Center Drive School.