MDI is ‘lucky’ to keep local controls

BAR HARBOR — Mount Desert Islanders are lucky. That’s what people were saying as they filed out of the MDI High School auditorium Nov. 14 following a public forum on the state’s school district consolidation efforts.

According to participants, islanders are lucky to have dedicated school board members, including three who helped craft a “loophole” in the state’s school consolidation law that allows towns to retain local control over their elementary schools.

The consensus was that residents are lucky the state gives island towns so little in school subsidies that the threat of withdrawing its support for noncompliance with the new law is less frightening here than it is in other parts of Maine; and that people have the ears of their state representatives, all of whom showed up at the public forum.

About 100 people, including educators, administrators, school board members, parents and other concerned citizens turned out to hear a report from Union 98’s Reorganization Planning Committee (RPC) which has been having meetings since July. The session included a question-and-answer period moderated by attorney Bill Ferm.

RPC chairman Gail Marshall reported on the progress the committee has made toward developing a plan that would conform to the consolidation law. She said the committee has developed a model (Model 4, of five) that closely resembles the governance and funding mechanisms currently in place.

“We didn’t think we were broken,” said Ms. Marshall, “and we didn’t think we needed fixing.”

“Model 4 is what we are doing today,” said Jeff Smith, an RPC member from Mount Desert.

The new law allows regional school units (RSUs) to delegate duties and responsibilities back to local schools thanks to a loophole in the law that Ms. Marshall, Paul Murphy and Brian Hubbell helped craft. They advocated for the change in a last-minute meeting with Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron in Rep. Hannah Pingree’s office in Augusta.

Mr. Murphy thanked Sen. Dennis Damon for “putting his head on a block” by withholding his vote to approve the state budget, which included the school consolidation law, until the delegation from Union 98 was satisfied the rules were something members could live with.

The RPC has crafted a plan that allows towns to continue to own their own school buildings and retain much of the local control they have enjoyed regarding governance, hiring and firing and budgeting. It also delegates to the towns the power to close schools.

“No one likes the state telling us what to do,” said Diane Waters, the principal of Tremont Elementary School. “But this law gives us the opportunity to complete a job we have already started. Union 98’s strength comes from the consolidation that was done 40 years ago. The schools on the island share similar goals. It’s my personal opinion that the elementary schools be consolidated, too. We have 1,500 students on MDI and they are all our children.”

Her comments drew a smattering of applause.

Phil Worden, an RPC member from Tremont, emphasized the importance of the issues the school boards are now facing. He pointed out that this is the first time in 40 years that schools have been asked to consolidate. Since the last time, when four towns on the island joined forces to create one regional high school, there has been a gradual evolution toward one educational community, he said.

Mr. Worden said he sees room for improvement and that the plan provides the flexibility to continue making progress toward the goal of providing the same educational background to all students.

Mr. Murphy said RPC members had a diversity of opinion on that subject. He said island schools already share a single superintendent, curriculum coordinator, special education director, and teacher contracts. He said that the difference of opinion was about whether the timeline for further resource sharing should be long or short.

“We sink or swim together,” said Ms. Marshall.

However, RPC members were clear about why they are not endorsing a plan that goes that far at this time.

“That would mean a huge cost shift, which is problematic, and the relinquishing of local control,” said Mr. Murphy. “Mount Desert spends $19,000 per elementary school student and Bar Harbor spends $9,000 per student. It’s not hard to see what would happen. Schools will close. You don’t want your school at the mercy of a big town.”

Mr. Smith agreed.

“Town lines are tax lines,” he said. “All schools must meet standards but how that preparation takes place is a matter of local control. Each town has a personality and I think diversity is okay.”

Ms. Marshall said she wants to craft a way for communities to take steps to change without going back to the Legislature for permission.

Committee members also fielded questions about the high school funding formula and governance, two areas that will be discussed at the next RPC meeting on Nov. 28.

No matter how similar the plan is to how Union 98 operates now, the method for approving school budgets would change under the new law. School superintendent Rob Liebow said the budget may be raised in sections – K-8, high school and central office – but must be approved by referendum. If it’s not, Mr. Liebow explained, then the budget would go back to town meeting and 10 days later another referendum would be held. If it didn’t pass then, the process would be repeated with referendums every 10 days until the budget passed.

Although the RPC has been having meetings for five months, the committee will not have a completed plan to submit to the state on Dec. 1, the state’s deadline for an early start on reorganization.

“Early starts are not likely to happen anywhere in the state,” Mr. Liebow said.

He said that is due to the many unanswered questions about funding that would affect towns such as Trenton and Lamoine. Joining an RSU would increase the cost of educating children for those towns. 

Gary Webber, the school superintendent for Union 92, said Trenton is attempting to stay as it is. This is an option the law allows, as long as a town has a contract that assures students will be accepted at an area high school. Mr. Webber said 90 percent of Trenton’s students choose to attend Mount Desert Island High School and would probably continue to do so as tuition students.

If schools have not joined an approved RSU by July 1, 2009 the state will consider them non-conforming and have the option to stop funding, reported Union 98 superintendent Rob Liebow.

He said that because MDI does not receive much in the way of education funding from the state, which would mean only a reduction in special education funding totaling about $750,000.

As the RPC was reporting on its progress toward crafting a plan that would conform to the new law, Skip Greenlaw was in the lobby collecting signatures for his petition to repeal it.

“Does it make any sense to repeal the law at this point?” asked one member of the public.

Dick Atlee said he thought it was his civic duty to sign, because, although MDI would be all right, “a lot towns in other parts of the state are going to crash and burn.”

Mr. Smith said that he favors repeal but still joined the RPC and supports the work of the committee.

“None of us have been fans of this law,” Ms. Marshal reminded the crowd. “It’s make-work for us and distracts us from the business of educating students.”

Mr. Hubbell, speaking for himself, said repeal would not be the quickest route to getting back to the business of education.

Another person asked what the committee would do if the Department of Education does not approve the RPC’s plan.

Ms. Marshall said she expects the plan will be approved, but that if it was not, they would go back to their legislators to work for a change in the law.

“What we’re not going to do is just roll over,” she said.