FARMINGTON – Although area school systems are at different stages in the consolidation process, school officials all agree it isn’t the answer.
Three superintendents and one school board chairman painted a grim picture of the consolidation process at the Western Maine Legislative Caucus breakfast forum “The Latest on School Consolidation: An Update for Voters,” and called for new legislation that would give school districts the freedom to decide their own ways of finding efficiencies.
MSAD 9 and MSAD 58’s consolidation has been approved by the state’s Department of Education but both school boards have recommended it not be passed by voters. The plan to merge goes before voters on Nov. 4. MSAD 36 and Jay’s plan is currently undergoing legal review and still needs to be approved by the school board and the state. Jay and MSAD 36 hope to send a plan to voters by late January.
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From left to right: MSAD 9 school board chairman Ray Glass, MSAD 36’s Superintendent Terry Despres, MSAD 58’s Superintendent Quenten Clark and Jay Superintendent Robert Wall, discuss the painful consolidation process at the Western Maine Legislative Caucus held today. |
Districts which do not meet the requirements of the law will face penalty fines. Jay faces a $200,000 penalty; MSAD 36, $173,000; MSAD 58, $120,000 and MSAD 9 $400,000, if the plan isn’t in place by the deadline next summer.
“This is a real time crunch,” said Jay Superintendent Robert Wall. If approved by voters, the school systems’ separate budgets will need to merge as one for fiscal year 2010. Everything from maintenance and transportation to school property debt will need to meld into one budget. School taxes will shift between towns with the new cost-sharing deal. Jay residents can expect to pay $12,000 less while the MSAD 36 towns of Livermore and Livermore Falls will each pay $6,000 more.
For MSAD 9’s towns, $1 million more will need to be raised locally, while MSAD 58 will pay that much less if the budgets all were to remain the same. The formula is based on property valuations, which are much higher in the southern part of Franklin County in MSAD 9 as well as MSAD 58 exceeding the state’s funding guidelines by a wide margin. A cost-shifting plan, approved at a reorganization committee meeting, would phase the shift in over a period of five years.
Despite the hurdles towards merging, Jay’s Superintendent Wall and MSAD 36’s Superintendent Terry Despres are optimistic they can make it work.
“The two districts are very different but we’ve made some real headway,” Despres said.
All agreed seeing a savings, as was the original, stated intent of the school consolidation law, will be long in coming if it comes at all.
“They’ll be no savings, at least in the first year and the second year and the third year,” Wall said, then he added, “and the fourth year.” We need to look at the whole process and see how we can make it work.”
MSAD 58’s Superintendent Quenten Clark and MSAD 9 school board chairman Ray Glass, who also served as co-chair with Rupert Pratt of the 45-member reorganization committee, were not optimistic about their plans to merge.
“I went into this with optimism,” Clark said. “I thought it was going to work. But the process itself was extraordinarily difficult.” He pointed to the large reorganization committee having to decide a lot of issues in a short time. And the facilitator, Bill Cummings coming to each meeting with “a different message from Augusta.”
“All this brought hate and discontent and a lot of anger,” Clark said. In the end both boards have voted against recommending passage of the plan. He noted the long distance between towns make consolidation of MSAD 9 and MSAD 58 physically difficult, “if not impossible,” as compared to MSAD 36 and Jay schools’ relatively close proximity.
“I don’t believe it has a chance in hell of getting approved,” Clark said of the MSAD 9/MSAD 58 consolidation vote on Nov. 4. “I say we vote the damn thing down and get back to the process.”
“We thought it was a natural for the two districts to come together,” Ray Glass said. “But the process poisoned that possibility and only brought antagonism.” He added there was a fear among the committee members that the larger towns of the district might work together to overpower smaller towns.
“The death knell came in August when we found out SAD 9’s share meant $1 million more in taxes. That’s a big problem for us,” Glass said.
“Is the system to be efficient only reached by consolidation?” Despres asked rhetorically. “Collaboration among school districts works. You can’t ask small towns to consolidate like Portland.”
“They need to say, ‘here’s a target and you go and figure it out for yourself.’ We know what the problems and situations are on the local level. There’s not just one solution to a very complex situation,” Glass said. “We need the freedom to solve the problem,” he added.
For a look at the cost share analysis for MSADs 9 & 58 towns, see dailybulldog.com/db/?p=473
The Western Maine Legislative Caucus is an annual series of public forums on topics of interest to the region. The forum includes a free breakfast and is sponsored by the Western Mountains Alliance, University of Maine Farmington, Franklin Community Health Network, Greater Franklin Development Corporation, Mission at the Eastward, Western Maine Community Action Program, and MSAD9. For more information, contact the Western Mountains Alliance at 778-3885 or visit www.westernmountainsalliance.org.
