GLENBURN, Maine — Voters will decide on March 27 whether Glenburn should move forward in its attempt to withdraw from RSU 26.
The four town councilors at Thursday’s regular council meeting unanimously approved a petition calling for the town to pull out of the school district it shares with Veazie and Orono. Councilor John Caruso was absent for that portion of the meeting.
Friends of Glenburn School, the group of about half a dozen residents who led the petition drive, gathered 320 validated signatures. They only needed 196 — or 10 percent of the number of voters in the last gubernatorial election — to move the withdrawal bid before voters.
Council Chairman Michael O’Connor said during the meeting that the number of signatures gathered door-to-door, at sporting events and in stores was impressive, considering there are only about 3,000 registered voters in Glenburn.
The withdrawal group had to gather signatures three times because the town asked the group to rewrite the petition three times. Attorneys advised them that the original language didn’t follow the wording laid out in state statute.
In all, Friends of Glenburn School member Donna Cotton estimates the group gathered more than 1,000 signatures over the course of the three petition attempts.
She said after the meeting that it was a “huge relief” to have the council accept the petition so the town can move forward in the withdrawal process
Now the town must draft the referendum and have it available at least 30 days before the March 27 special election.
A public hearing on the withdrawal proposal will be held at 7 p.m. March 8 during the regular council meeting.
The referendum question will call for the appropriation of $50,000 from the town’s undesignated fund balance to cover any legal fees associated with the withdrawal process. O’Connor said it’s unlikely the town will spend anywhere near that amount. Whatever amount is left over will be put back into the fund balance, according to town attorney Thomas Russell.
If a majority of voters at the March 27 special election favor the withdrawal bid, a committee made up of a town councilor, a member of the withdrawal group, a member of the school board and a member of the public enters into negotiations with the school board.
After that, the plan that comes out of that committee has to be approved in another election by a two-thirds vote. Then the plan has to be approved by the state Department of Education.
“We’ve initiated the process now,” O’Connor said, “and I think we need to move ahead in a timely manner to assure we’re ahead of the curve.”
Groups in Veazie and Orono also are working on petitions to give their own towns the opportunity to withdraw from the school district.
However, not all three communities can withdraw from the school district because that would effectively dissolve RSU 26, which isn’t allowed, according to Maine Department of Education spokesman David Connerty-Marin. If two towns were to successfully withdraw, the third would be left in the school district on its own unless another town joined up.
O’Connor stressed that if the withdrawal committee and town aren’t cautious and diligent while advancing through these next steps, “we could get passed while we’re in the slow lane.”
The Glenburn residents leading the push to leave the school district have complained that their town is shouldering a disproportionate burden in the school district’s attempts to close a $2 million budget deficit.
Because of a weighted voting system and the fact that the number of school board representatives from each town is based on population, Orono holds a majority vote in any school board decision. According to Cotton, that means Glenburn’s and Veazie’s best interests can be easily overlooked.
“I feel Glenburn will never receive adequate representation within the RSU,” Cotton said. “It’s just time to get out.”
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I have lived in big cities where they tried this for the purpose of over crowded schools. Does not save money, if anything costs more. I tried to tell the politicians this. Did they listen NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO . What it created was a big inconvience to everyone.
This is just like getting married to the wrong preson (thankfully I found the right one).
It`s easy to get into but lenghty and expensive and messy to get out of.
The lawyers should be able to line their pockets on this one
If Orono & Veazie were always a unit together (if not always, then long before this RSU fad)…doesn’t Glenburn’s successful withdrawal just leave them where they were all along? Or do they still need to push forward with their own withdrawal process anyway? Confusing!
By “they” I meant Veazie. I am wondering if this process could end up leaving Veazie standing alone, if both withdrawals were allowed? Doesn’t seem so; Veazie is pretty tiny to be its own school unit.
From what I read the problem for all three communities is that the RSU does not dissolve even if every one leaves. The “last” town to leave has to maintain the RSU. I suppose though that as each town leaves their budgets will have to increase for they have to add back in administrative costs the RSU is bearing.
I am waiting for Glenburn to leave the RSU, then wait for the headlines when they realize they were far better off, financially, IN the RSU.
They will still have to have a superintendent, central office staff, special education director, curriculum coordinator, etc. I honestly think the reactions (overreactions in my book) to the RSUs is based on the false belief that the RSU is causing these budget cuts. None of these people can realize that it is the economy (and that drives everything).
It was also the state’s blatent and outright refusal to admit that it has been going broke for a VERY long time now.
The economy was going south well before consolidation came along. When the people of the state voted to force them to ante up to the percentage that they had been saying since the late 1980s they were going to pay, instead of admitting they counted revenue (that anyone with 3 ounces of common sense knew they weren’t ever going to get) they answered with forcing towns to consolidate.
This would not have become the acrimonious issue that it is now had the state just said “Listen, we’re broke. We need to find other ways to save money.”
There are many other ways to save money for schools that didn’t involve such drastic (and IMO) “Chicken Little” measures. This whole thing was fast-tracted for a reason. I’d really like to know if they dropped a single mandate (and yes, some of those are federal). As the old saying goes “There is no such thing as an unfunded mandate.”
This whole situation was predicted from the beginning. That’s why people are trying to get out of this now. The budget was voted down twice by the townspeople of Glenburn, but the Orono majority ruled. It will always rule.
Glenburn will quite literally have little to no say in what will be done (regardless of any supposed cooperation).
This is the crux of the movement to get out of it.