20 days ago
(NEWS CENTER) -- On November 3, Maine voters will be asked, "Do you want to repeal the 2007 law on school district consolidation and restore the laws previously in effect?" It's Question 3 on the ballot, and has garnered a lot of attention from around the state.
Scott Porter is superintendent of schools for 11 towns. He oversees operations in School Union 102 (Machias, Jonesboro, Marshfield, Whitneyville, Rogue Bluffs, Northfield, Wesley), School Union 134 (Cutler, Whiting, Machiasport) and East Machias. He says by combining services they have saved $135,000 a year.
Each of the towns Porter represents has its own school board, budget and pays its own bills. Because of that, the state did not approve their consolidation plan, and they are not in compliance and will incur a penalty.
"It just doesn't seem right that we're doing everything we can to consolidate services and yet if this law stays on the books, the towns I represent, the 11 towns, will see collective penalties of over $200,000," said Porter. "That's just not fair."
Skip Greenlaw has been fighting since the law was passed in 2007 to get it overturned. He led a team of volunteers to collect enough signatures to get it on the ballot, and has traveled around the state for the "Yes on 3" campaign.
"I think we need to repeal the law and we all need to sit down and all need to work cooperatively together and figure out how we can save money to reduce the cost of education," Greenlaw said during a recent stop in Bangor.
He says he's not against consolidation, and is happy for the districts where it has worked. But he doesn't agree that it should be mandatory and a penalty should be incurred if the state doesn't approve a district's plan.
"I think the question is this has been from top down, and not from the ground up," Greenlaw said. "And if it had been from the ground up, I think we would have found substantial savings to accomplish what the governor wanted to."
Greenlaw says towns that have come into compliance are now seeing the affects of it. He said in RSU 5, which includes Durham, Freeport and Pownal, Durham's taxes have gone up 19 percent and Pownal's have gone up 25 percent.
Opponents also say they're leary of the law because they say once the state approves a district's plan, there's no way to get out of it.
"You can get out of a contract. You can quit your job. You can get out of a marriage. You can get out of anything," said Will Tuell, a selectperson for East Machias. "I thought slavery and indentured servatude went away 100 or more years ago, back in the 1860s. But this is just turning back the clock in many ways."
"Yes on 3" says loss of local control is devastating, and if one school committee is responsible for all of the districts, smaller towns get left out. The campaign also argues there's no even way to split the state's subsidy check.
"There was no way to mathmatically to get that done," said Porter.
Still, consolidation is working for other rural Maine districts, and leaders there are worried that if Question 3 passes, all they've accomplished will be undone.
One district that's had fabulous success has been RSU 10, which includes the towns of Canton, Carthage, Dixfield, Peru, Buckfield, Hartford, Sumner, Byron, Mexico, Roxbury, and Rumford. The district, which had been split into 3 SADs, has saved $600,000 in the four months since it has consolidated.
Superintendent, Dr. Thomas Ward, said those savings have come because of reductions in administration and office staff. Ward said, "I firmly believe, and I publicly stated frequently, that school consolidation couldn't have come along at a better time for our region."
Ward said those savings have allowed the school district to add a pre-K program at Dirigo Elementary school without raising taxes. The district also is optimistic it will be able to expand its school laptop program and offer more advanced placement classes because resources can be shared.
Maine's Department of Education has approved consolidation plans for 84 percent of districts statewide. Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said if Question 3 passes, all that work will be undone. And that will mean that it will take new legislation to allow districts like RSU 10 to continue to operate. Those districts might have to re-draft their legal documents, adding unnecessary costs.
Gendron said some districts who have not consolidated are looking into whether they need to close schools because it costs too much to keep them open. She believes consolidating administration will save money that will allow local schools to stay open.
"What we were really hoping in this law was to preserve quality education and for us to think differently about how we deliver that," Gendron said.
Gendron said consolidation can be a challenge for some districts because they are so far apart, but she feels it isn't fair for the whole state to pick up a bigger tab for towns that are not trying making an effort to be as efficient as possible.
She said, "With the repeal of this law, we would go back to everyone bearing the cost of local decisions that are driven by expenditures that are higher in certain places
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