BAR HARBOR — More than 300 people turned out to voice concerns about Governor John Baldacci’s controversial school redistricting plan at an open forum at the Mount Desert Island High School on Monday, Jan. 22. State Senator Dennis Damon and state Representatives Ted Koffman and Hannah Pingree were there.

“We are not dealing with beans. We are dealing with human beings.” – Judie Noonan

“This plan abolishes our local school board,” said Phil Worden of Tremont. “We will no longer be able to make decisions about our sex-education, our theater or our arts. We can unite on this thing, and we can win it,” he said to applause.

Later in the evening, the School Union 98 board – which includes representatives from Bar Harbor, Mount Desert, Southwest Harbor, Tremont, Cranberry Isles, Swans Island and Frenchboro – unanimously voted in favor of a resolution to publicly oppose the governor’s proposal known as “Local Schools, Regional Support.” They found that the proposed legislation was “neither local nor supportive,” said Gail Marshall, school board representative for Mount Desert.

State Senator Dennis Damon, D-Hancock County, makes a point during Monday’s meeting on Governor John Baldacci’s school consolidation plan.—EARL BRECHLIN PHOTO

Bar Harbor school board member Paul Murphy took issue with the phrase “like-minded.”

“I can’t believe that they can sit there and compare what we do here to the communities that we will be diluted by,” he said.

In all, 35 towns and 36 individual schools with approximately 7,500 students would become one body with one budget. The region would be overseen by a board of no more than 15 people, with one superintendent at a central office in Ellsworth. “There is no way that every town in the region could be represented,” said Ms. Marshall.

Rob Liebow, Union 98 superintendent, expressed the school board’s concerns about “the fairly aggressive timeline” of the governor’s proposal. The project is set to begin implementation in the next few months and completed by July of 2008. “It is not clear how this will actually occur,” he said.

“This plan is a fast-tracked, hostile takeover raid of a company. It’s just a hit and run,” said Gerry Keenan of Bar Harbor.

Mr. Murphy agreed. “I think that this is frighteningly fast-tracked as well,” he said.

He went on to criticize the Maine Department of Education’s “disregard for the local community” as a driving force in the Union 98 school board’s “passionate distaste for this legislation being shoved down our throats.”

Sen. Damon said, “I am concerned with the speed and with the depth and breadth of this proposal as well.”

Joy Kelly of Bar Harbor spoke about the issue on a personal level. “If this decreases the quality of education for my son, whether it saves me money or not, then I don’t want it,” she said.

Catherine Burdett of Somesville said, “Everyone knows what we have here; that’s why we bought on the island.”

The plan reminded Judy Noonan of Bar Harbor of “the corporate bean counters” she encountered during a career in insurance. “They would count the beans and get rid of beans. When they got rid of too many beans, they had to get more beans. But those beans were not as good as the beans they had,” she told the crowd. “We are not dealing with beans,” she said. “We are dealing with human beings.”

The governor’s school consolidation plan is packaged within his proposed biennial budget. It promises a cost savings of $241 million by 2011.

Dick Atlee of Southwest Harbor raised the issue of actual savings versus proposed savings. “If the underlying purpose of this plan is saving money, has anyone actually looked into if this is actually going to save?” he said. He explained his concern that if it is not, “we will have lost it all.”

“What we need is an independent peer review,” suggested Dick Dimond of Southwest Harbor.

“This is the peer review,” said Ms. Pingree.

Admitting that the comment might not make her a favorite of the present legislators, Liz Kase of Bar Harbor told the elected officials that “the state of Maine has more representatives than Pennsylvania. When I do a budget, I start in my own house.”

On Feb. 5, the legislative Education Committee will host a public hearing on Gov. Baldacci’s consolidation plan and other consolidation legislation proposals, at the Augusta Civic Center. This is Maine residents’ opportunity to air their grievances on the proposal. Four other community meetings are scheduled around the state as well.

“The fundamental question that I have is, ‘Why have the meetings in Augusta? Why have us come to you?’” asked Mark Puglisi.

Jill Goldthwait of Bar Harbor told the assembly that in her opinion there is no way the governor’s plan will pass. She urged the community not to “lay awake at night worrying about this.

“First, write one letter each to your governor, senator and state representative stating one reason that you don’t think this should pass,” she said. Then she asked that the community consider “if any degree of consolidation is worthwhile” and, if so, to work to bring it about. Last, Ms. Goldthwait recommended staying involved. “Local school budget meetings are a good place to turn out,” she said.

One resident asked the legislators present where they stood on the governor’s proposal.

Sen. Damon said that at this time he has no official position on the proposed legislation. “The document that you have seen is not the final document,” he said. “It is now in the revisions office for final drafting.” Until a final document is drafted, he prefers to remain neutral. As he sees it, it is Gov. Baldacci’s job to propose legislation and “it is for us, the legislators, and you, to correct it and act on it.”

Rep. Pingree assured the audience that she had witnessed “statewide concern” in regard to the proposal. She then agreed with Ms. Goldthwait that, as it stands, there is no way the legislation would pass. She said she would “never vote in favor of the legislation as it is now written.” She then offered the adage, “The governor proposes and the legislature disposes.”

One audience member raised concerns that there must be something that the governor knew that he did not. “What’s the pulse on this issue?” he asked the legislators.

“I haven’t taken the governor’s pulse lately,” said Rep. Koffman, “but when I get up there, I’m going to check his vital signs.”

MDI officials have established a website about the consolidation issue at www.mdischools.net.

Discuss this article in the Mount Desert Islander forums. (0 posts)