KINGFIELD – Residents raised a lot of questions at Thursday’s informational meeting on whether or not to explore withdrawing from MSAD 58. An initial vote will be held on July 16.
The meeting, held at Webster Hall, offered a platform for concerned townspeople to voice their opinions and to discuss potential outcomes of the vote. Attending the meeting was approximately 30 people, including teachers, selectmen, residents as well as a small number of parents.
The July referendum vote will determine whether or not to explore the option of leaving MSAD 58. The process for a town to leave a district consists of 22 complex steps. The majority of voters in the town must request the withdrawal through a referendum, which will take place in July. Then, the DOE commissioner directs the town’s selectmen to establish a withdrawal committee, which develops an agreement with the school district to leave the district. Finally, another vote is taken by town residents on whether or not to approve the agreement.
MSAD 58 currently consists of the towns of Kingfield, Avon, Strong and Phillips. Eustis left the district in 2013, creating the Flagstaff Regional School Unit. Some Kingfield residents have advocated leaving the district multiple times in the past 15 years, most recently in 2013 after the departure of Eustis.
One of the difficulties of this vote, residents noted, is that many of the questions raised cannot be answered without going through the process of officially investigating withdrawal. The Maine Department of Education has many of the answers regarding funding and what options Kingfield would have after leaving MSAD 58. Without an official exploration of these ideas, residents are concerned this issue will continue coming up with no resolution.
Some residents speaking at the meeting said the issue should be passed simply to put the question to rest.
In regards to some of the concerns that arose at the meeting, selectmen Brian Hatfield said: “We basically have three balls we are juggling. One is a contract issue with teachers. Another is that perhaps the board isn’t functioning as well as it could be; perhaps there is room for improvement there. And the third is that there is a lot of finger pointing going on involving the equality of funding.”
Kingfield currently sends fewer than 25 percent of the district’s enrolled students to MSAD 58 schools, but pays slightly more than 40 percent of the district’s local share. Those shares are determined strictly through town valuation.
To Hatfield’s three juggling ball analogy, residents added a fourth: what is best for the kids? Residents questioned if Kingfield would be able to offer their students the same opportunities that they had at MSAD 58.
Regardless of the outcome of the vote, selectmen and residents at the meeting said, the conversation about withdrawal needed to be had. One resident commented on the the small number of parents in the crowd, remarking that they were the ones who actually have kids that would be affected by the vote.
For residents looking to get involved with the discussion there will be a public hearing held on July 6 at 6 p.m. at Webster Hall.
It has always been my belief that if you have no children or grandchildren in the school system, you should be able to exempt yourself from paying tax monies set aside for the SAD system. Children need to be educated, but because the cost adds a significant amount to your tax bill (creating a burden for some), you should have the option to opt out of paying if you don’t have children in the system. This seems fair.
No, that’s absolutely not fair. Most of us have children in the education system at some point and I think all of us can recognize the need for educating children whether they’re ours or someone else’s. If you put the burden squarely on the shoulders of parents then no one would be able to afford it. Think about the economics of what you’re saying. Instead of dividing the cost among a few thousand you would be distributing the cost among a few hundred. What you’re suggesting is akin to saying–I’ve never had a need to call the police or fire station, so I shouldn’t need to pay for those because I’m not directly benefiting. Surely you’ve seen that bumper sticker, “If you think education is expensive then try ignorance.”
Snowbird: Would it be fair to pay taxes only if a police officer helped you AFTER a crime? Would it be fair to only have our border states pay for the border patrol? Only those towns that are invaded for the Army/AirForce/Marines?
The strength of a society depends upon how it develops its infrastructure, supports common goals for defense, believes and participates in mutual aid, and builds for the future.
Education is a building block for the future. Someone paid for yours, and we pay it forward for the next generation. I plan on living long enough to enjoy the fruits of my labors, and of my childrens’ and of their childrens’. Since it may be my grandchildren, or my neighbors grandchildren that support me in many ways in future years, I want them to be as well educated and skilled in what they do as possible.
MY Investing in others education is investing in my future, just as investing in defense via the fire department and police is an investment in my current and future safety. I am just being selfish by investing taxes for the common good, because the common good is all about me and my family.
@ Angela: Yes, yes, everybody should pay for education and community services. It’s the politics in the LePage administration that makes it so painful for those paying property taxes.
Elmira, regarding our Governor supporting education, the current administration is providing no less (or no more) funding to school districts than prior administrations. Our state government, over twenty years ago, passed a law that was supposed to provide no less than 55% of the cost of educating our children. This level of funding has never been including in any budget presented to the governor for approval. The Governor does not create the annual budget for the State, our legislature does. Symbolic line item vetoes (this year amounting to less than 1% of the budget approved by the legislature) will always be over-ridden by the legislative body. Continuing to throw more money into a broken system every year is not the answer. Governor LePage may be outspoken and cantankerous, but he is only one part of the system. Your local House Representative and State Senator share as much, if not more, of the blame as the Governor does. They have been in office longer than he has.
Please read the letter on this page of the Bulldog and consider speaking with your representatives in Augusta. Irv writes a solid letter, and Senator Saviello supports him. Let’s get more support for sharing the costs, not just diverting more to home and property owners.
https://dailybulldog.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-legislature-missing-the-point-with-budget-discussion/
What is it that we DO know about withdrawing from the district? We know that Kingfield would have more local control. We know that a school that becomes its own district must fund its teachers, principal, secretary, custodians and bus drivers as well as a Superintendent, Business Manager, Special Education Director, music/art/phys ed teachers, Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, Speech Therapist, and Social Worker. It would need to begin again its Pre-K Program start up. We know that if the school is K-8 that Kingfield would need to make tuition agreements for its high school students with MSAD 58, which would be trying desperately to financially keep the doors to Mt. Abram open. Or, students could go to Mt. Blue with a slightly less expensive tuition agreement, but with substantially more transportation costs and little opportunity for students and athletes to have transportation home past the 2:30 bus. We do know that Kingfield high school age students would have ZERO representation wherever they go. I’m more concerned about having a voice for my high school aged children as they prepare for life after high school than I am about questioning my K-8 child’s subject choices. We know that Stratton/Eustis pays almost DOUBLE the education bill through their taxes that they did before they left MSAD 58, and hurrah for them, because their decision had nothing to do with money, but everything to do with retaining a school in their rural community. Billionaire Oprah Winfrey wrote a book called “What I Know For Sure.” I wish that those steering this ship would please share all that they know for sure, because although there are variables that they don’t know regarding funding and policy, there are MANY things about this situation that they should share that they already know for sure. I believe that if there was full disclosure at this point, this push would come to its end quickly and the discord that it’s causing within a town and a district community could be laid to rest. Transparency, please!
Stratton is not paying double in taxes. Look at the budget book in detail, call the town office. In this situation it is important to look at numbers before making statements that support the emotions.
There are many services that are/can be shared services with other districts. These include but not limited to Superintendent, Spec Ed, Social work, OT and Speech. The point being that these do not have to be a full-time not shared position. Good for Kingfield for looking at the big picture and taking the time to dissect the educational system. I wish them well in this journey. The fear of losing MTA and not looking into this is emotional.
Kingfield has a lot of tuition students already attending the school and can get more from other towns around once the conversation is started. Look at the cost sharing formula. As above, if you were paying 40% of the local share but only had 20% of the kids wouldn’t you look into something different?
I understand the argument of paying for education; but when your tax bill arrives and you are paying 50% of it towards SAD with no children ever in the system, that’s a lot. At least, it should be ‘voluntary’ to contribute.
Answers are needed to many questions that are largely unanswerable at this point. Voting to study the issue will essentially be a locally driven fact-ftinding effort that will give voters the information they need to decide what is in the best interests of students as well as determine the most financially viable course for the future. Meanwhile, the Kingfield school directors could request the school district board convene a cost sharing committee according to state statute to determine if new formula involving perhaps a combination of town valuation and student enrollment would be negotiable with the other towns in the district. It would be good to know if Strong, Avon and Phillips would work with Kingfield on this or would cling to the existing formula regardless of the consequences. Maybe people have learned some lessons from Stratton’s departure. A compromise on the cost sharing formula might be a lot less expensive in the long run for all the towns rather than another town secession from the district.
Snowbird, please see the link above. The State of Maine, under Gov. Lepage, has continued to reduce funds previously distributed to towns and cities, reducing state aid for education. The reduction in state aid forces up the taxes on property owners. Education funding should have the broadest base of support, not an ever narrowing one. Those that are left area assessed at higher rates.
The income tax rate was cut, and forced property taxes to be raised. Taxes need to be progressive, not regressive.
Snowbird: Did you attend any public schools? Who paid for your schooling? Was their money well spent and were their contributions voluntary?
If I had 20% of the kids and paid 40% of the local share, I would be grateful for the local thriving economy in my town and not grumble and throw a TIF. Oops, I mean FIT.
Snowbird, should it be voluntary for me to pay taxes that are used for food stamps or welfare or section 8 housing? I’m not using any of those services.
Taxes will never be fair until we have a true flat tax. Nearly 50% of the people in the country don’t pay any taxes at all.
Bob, if you wouldn’t mind sharing, please tell us what Stratton/Eustis paid while they were in the district and what their education costs are now. Thank you.
Really, You are right