One abiding lesson we should take from this experience is that we should continue to be attentive to what is being proposed and debated in Augusta.

Members of the 123rd session of the Maine Legislature have packed up and gone home. In the final hours, they passed amendments to the school consolidation law in LD 2323. Included in those amendments, already signed into law by the governor, are provisions that will allow Union 98 as it is currently structured, to qualify as an alternative school organization under the school consolidation law.

Many of you know that LD 1932, which included the Damon Amendment because Sen. Dennis Damon sponsored it in the Senate, was vetoed by Gov. John Baldacci little more than a week before the end of the legislative session. Prior to that, Union 98’s plan for reorganization, submitted last December, was rejected by Susan Gendron, the Commissioner of Education. But these latest additions to the law, drafted by our attorney, are intended to allow schools to model their governance after Union 98, which the commissioner has of late described as “the gold standard.” How our fortunes reversed in such a short period of time is a saga that would take a long night around a campfire to relate. However there are a couple of factors that proved to be indispensable and deserve mention here.

The hard work and dedication of our state representatives was truly first rate. Sen. Dennis Damon, House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree and Rep. Ted Koffman each and all worked overtime, especially in the last week, to make the difference. Scheduling for us and attending meetings with the commissioner, advocating in caucus, buttonholing other senators and representatives, speaking on the floor, they did it all. They fought long and hard for us. They deserve our thanks. Likewise our attorney Dick Spencer, from Drummond Woodsum in Portland, is the best there is. There were many others working hard to make this a better law or for outright repeal, including other legislators, the tireless members of the Maine Small Schools Coalition, and lobbyists for Maine School Management.

We were able to consistently advocate that our schools are undeniably not broken and therefore do not need fixing. For years our professionals have focused on consolidating and collaborating services wherever it seemed both educationally and fiscally prudent to do so. The latest major initiative, the collective bargaining agreements with our teachers, which are identical in each school, is unique. In fact, the Department of Education has endorsed it as an example that may help other school systems qualify as an alternative school organization.

Under the terms of the new law, any school system may be certified by the commissioner as an alternative school organization if its Reorganization Planning Committee (RPC) submits a plan that demonstrates its system of at least 1,200 students has or will have: a central administration like our superintendent’s office; centralized administration of special education, curriculum, business management, and transportation which Union 98 already has, with the exception of transportation management; adoption and use of a “core curriculum,” which Union 98 administrators and teachers have worked hard already to create and implement; and consistent (not necessarily identical) school policies, calendar and collective bargaining agreements, all of which Union 98 has.

Because “school unions” will no longer exist in law, the RPC will propose to our communities the terms of an “interlocal agreement” that will be required to continue the central office and administration of the high school. Each community will still completely own and operate its elementary school so long as it chooses to.

We still will have to do school budgets and their validation process in the new rather cumbersome manner now outlined in the law beginning at the upcoming town meetings. But K-8 budgets are funded in and remain under the control of the municipalities where they are located.

We have been clearly and unequivocally assured by the commissioner that Union 98 will qualify under these provisions. Given recent history you are to be forgiven for harboring skepticism about such an assurance. But preceded by a directive from the governor to make this law work for MDI schools, these assurances are far more explicit and are based on much clearer legal advice, provided every step of the way by our counsel. Further, the commissioner has stated that had she felt legally able to do so under prior law, she would have approved our plan last December. We have every reason to anticipate a collaborative relationship with the Department of Education during this process.

While we celebrate our success, we should take a sober moment to note that many small schools, including many of those represented by the Maine Small Schools Coalition, beset not only with consolidation requirements, but with the harsh effects of major cuts in state education subsidies upon which they depend for survival, may not fare as well. We hope they will be able to take advantage of the flexibility created by these changes in the law. However, we harbor no illusions that it will be easy for them to do so. The bill to repeal the consolidation law, which we also supported, and our representatives and senator voted for, passed in the House, did not make it out of the Senate, and faced a certain fatal veto by the governor.

One abiding lesson we should take from this experience is that we should continue to be attentive to what is being proposed and debated in Augusta. In the planning stages there are more changes to educational law and policy, some clearly not in our best interests. We should assume that the state will continue to assert a robust role in educational policy. We can and should be at the table when such matters are contemplated.

Beginning Wednesday, April 30, our RPC will restart its work to prepare the plan we will need to submit in accordance with LD 2323. Ultimately that plan will be submitted to the voters of Union 98 for approval. To get to that point there is still much work to be done. But we can now undertake that work secure in the knowledge that our schools and communities are not to be threatened by the consolidation law. Those of us who work in or serve our schools are looking forward to soon being able to return our full time attention to the every-day business of operating MDI schools as “the gold standard.”

Gail Marshall is a Mount Desert school board member and chairman of the Union 98 RPC; Brian Hubbell is a Bar Harbor school board member and vice chairman of the Union 98 RPC; Paul Murphy, is a Bar Harbor school board member and a member of the Union 98 RPC.