Media Update from the Maine Department of Education
April 18, 2008
Update on Reorganization Legislation Enacted by the Legislature
The Legislature gave final approval this morning to LD 2323, An Act To Remove Barriers to the Reorganization of School Administrative Units. The House voted 92-41 on Thursday night and the Senate voted this morning 22-12.
LD 2323 was not a Governor’s bill. It was sponsored by Sen. Peter Bowman. It included nearly all of the provisions of the original LD 1932 as written by the Education Committee, including the three non-controversial financial fixes in the original Majority Report adopted by 10 members of the Committee, as well as several technical and other amendments added by the Committee. All these provisions were also in the Minority Report on LD 1932.
In addition, LD 2323 was amended by House Amendment “G,” presented by Rep. David Farrington. House Amendment “G” included the text of what was a separate bill, LD 2280. That amendment was added without dissent under the hammer (details below).
The key provisions from LD 1932 that are in the new bill:
The bill does NOT include the one-year delay in the budget validation referendum requirement that was in the original LD 1932 (so all units must use the budget validation referendum process this year). This is the only provision in the Education Committee’s LD 1932 that was not part of the new bill.
LD 2323 also authorizes the Commissioner of Education to approve a plan for an alternative organizational structure if the plan satisfies the purposes of the school administrative reorganization law, including:
House Amendment “G” incorporated all of LD 2280, passed previously in the House. Some have referred to this as the “Bucket A” bill drafted by the Education Committee. This amendment contained technical fixes and minor changes largely around deadlines and timing of the budget validation referendum process and a change to the calculation of penalties.
The bill moves the Nov. 4 deadline for communities to approve reorganization plans by referendum to Jan. 30, 2009 (and adjusts related deadlines accordingly). It extends to 14 days the amount of time municipalities may take before holding a budget validation referendum after the school budget meeting. It reduces the required ballots for the budget referendum from two to one. And it simplifies calculation of the penalty for communities that opt out – units would be subject to a 2 percent higher mill rate expectation.
More detail on key provisions from the original LD 1932 that are included in LD 2323
The following provisions are unchanged from the Education Committee’s original LD 1932:
1. Cost-sharing agreements. The bill allows school units to negotiate a local cost-sharing agreement to compensate for cost-shifting that occurs as a result of reorganization. The original law set a formula for cost-sharing based on valuation and does not allow for locally crafted cost-sharing agreements. This removes a barrier to almost every potential RSU. One potential RSU has a complete and approved plan that is conditional upon passage of legislation to allow for local cost-sharing agreements and several more are very close to having a complete plan that cannot be implemented without this legislation.
2. Minimum special education subsidy. The bill allows school units currently eligible for the minimum special education subsidy to keep that eligibility when they join in a new RSU, even if the new RSU is not a minimum subsidy unit. This removes a potential barrier to 63 minimum special education subsidy units.
3. 2 mill minimum. The bill removes the requirement, found in the law as enacted, that every SAU joining an RSU must raise a minimum 2 mills. Roughly two dozen municipalities currently raise less than two mills and could be forced to increase their education mill rate as a result of the existing law as written.
4. Cost-center format. The original law contained a technical error by referring CSDs and SADs to a different budget format requirement than for RSUs. The bill corrects this error so that all school units will now be required to prepare their annual budgets with 11 cost centers. This is a request of superintendents and others in the field and affects all CSDs and SADs. This does not change any of the requirements surrounding the budget validation referendum process.
5. Isolated rural units. The bill allows the Commissioner to approve so-called “doughnut hole” school units of between 1,000 and 1,200 students in isolated rural communities.
6. Ownership of school property. The bill clarifies that municipalities may retain ownership of school property as negotiated in the formation of regional school units.
Note: All items above were part of the original LD 1932 as approved by 10 members of the Education Committee and the minority report endorsed by the remaining three members of the Committee.
Bill text and other info at: http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/sponsors.asp?ID=280028851
Be sure to find the original bill text and the text of House Amendment “G,” the only amendment adopted by the Legislature to LD 2323.
Official summaries
This is the summary drafted by the Legislature’s Revisor’s Office for LD 2323 (found at the end of the official bill document):
SUMMARY
1. The bill corrects a cross-reference for the cost center summary budget format and the budget validation referendum process that school administrative districts and community school districts must comply with for budgets developed after January 1, 2008.
2. The bill articulates, without limitation, the core functions for which a regional school unit is responsible.
3. The bill provides regional school unit boards with the legal authority to receive and spend state and local funds, including funds for the election of regional school unit board members and to hire a superintendent prior to the operational date of the new regional school unit on July 1, 2009.
4. The bill clarifies the “Method B” apportionment process of weighted votes for regional school unit boards.
5. The bill provides for the election and staggered terms of the initial regional school unit board.
6. The bill replaces the law authorizing the formation of a local school committee for a member municipality and provides greater guidance in delegating functions and responsibilities to local school committees.
7. The bill clarifies the relationship between a regional school unit board and a local school committee that seeks to raise additional funds for an elementary school or a secondary school that is owned or managed by the member municipality.
8. The bill clarifies the authorization provided to regional planning committees to negotiate a cost-sharing agreement for those costs of a proposed regional school unit that are in addition to the local contribution required pursuant to the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 20-A, section 15690.
9. The bill clarifies the roles of the municipal officers and the school committee for municipal school units whose municipal charters give authority to approve the school budget to the municipal officers.
10. The bill establishes the requirements for calling a budget meeting and the procedures for the budget meeting.
11. The bill clarifies the assumption of existing debt that is transferred from an original education unit to a new regional school unit that is formed after July 1, 2008.
12. The bill removes references to “elementary” schools in the school closure provisions to clarify that secondary schools are also subject to these requirements.
13. The bill authorizes a municipal school committee to expand its membership from 5 members to as many as 7 members.
14. The bill clarifies the provisions governing tuition when there is no elementary school or no secondary school in a school administrative unit.
15. The bill clarifies the content and timing of the audit provisions.
16. The bill repeals a unit of law, and corrects a cross-reference to it, regarding the requirement that each municipality that is a member of a new regional school unit contribute a minimum of 2 mills of the municipality’s property fiscal capacity to the total cost of education of the new regional school unit.
17. The bill grandfathers the special education adjustment for so-called minimum subsidy receivers.
18. The bill permits the Commissioner of Education to authorize so-called “doughnut hole” school units that have 1,200 or fewer students and no other available reorganization partners to form a regional school unit that serves at least 1,000 students if these isolated, rural school units meet certain criteria.
19. The bill authorizes the Commissioner of Education to approve plans for alternative organizational structures under the school reorganization law. To approve a plan for an alternative organizational structure, the commissioner must find that the plan will satisfy the purposes of the school reorganization law including: consolidation of system administration; consolidation of administration of special education, transportation and business functions; adoption of a core curriculum; and adoption of consistent school policies, school calendars and collective bargaining agreements.
This is the official summary of House Amendment “G,” adopted by the Legislature as an amendment to LD 2323.
SUMMARY
This amendment strikes the emergency preamble and emergency clause and incorporates the following changes to clarify and improve the laws governing the formation of regional school units or alternative organizational structures.
1. It provides that a kindergarten-to-grade-12 school administrative district that is reformulated as a regional school unit without dissolving the school administrative district may continue to use the same name and operate as the same legal entity; and it amends the definition of “school administrative unit” to clarify that community school districts and kindergarten-to-grade-8 school administrative districts that do not join a regional school unit may remain in operation after July 1, 2009. The current law reformulates all kindergarten-to-grade-12 school administrative districts as regional school units by July 1, 2009 but is silent on the ability of community school districts and kindergarten-to-grade-8 school administrative districts to remain operational after that date.
2. It changes the deadline by which a referendum must be held to January 30, 2009 and changes dates that are linked to the referendum date by the same amount of time. The current law governing the reorganization of school administrative units requires that a referendum must be held on a proposed reorganization on or before November 4, 2008.
3. It provides consistent language across the allocated and unallocated provisions in the law to clarify the budget referendum ballot question to be placed before the voters at a budget validation referendum vote.
4. It clarifies and amends the budget approval and validation process provisions to:
A. Increase the number of days from the legislative body meeting to the referendum validation from 10 days to 14 days;
B. Provide that absentee ballots may not be distributed until the day after the regional school unit budget meeting;
C. In the event that a regional school unit budget has not been approved and validated prior to the start of the fiscal year, authorize municipalities to levy taxes based on the most recent school budget approved at the regional school unit budget meeting until a budget is validated by voters; and
D. Eliminate the need for 2 separate ballot questions for the budget validation referendum vote and combine information on 2 votes into one document provided with the warrant for the referendum vote.
5. It clarifies the debt liability of the school administrative units that are members of a career and technical education region, including the disposition of debt incurred for a school construction or renovation project at a career and technical education region by the school administrative units that are members of the career and technical education region.
6. It clarifies the financial responsibility for the preservation of school choice in a new regional school unit when a member municipality continues to provide tuition for students to attend a school outside of the new regional school unit. The provision provides that the member municipality is responsible for providing appropriations for any additional expense above the sending regional school unit tuition rate for students who are educated outside of the regional school unit.
7. It clarifies the rights and obligations of regional school units concerning the reassignment of teachers and other employees of the regional school unit in the transitional period from the operational date of the regional school unit until the completion of negotiations for a regional school unit-wide collective bargaining agreement.
8. It replaces the so-called “53.86% penalty” for any school administrative unit that fails to approve a reorganization plan on or before January 30, 2009 and to implement that plan by July 1, 2009 with a penalty that provides that the school administrative unit’s full-value education mill rate pursuant to the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 20-A, section 15671-A is increased by 2% for the purpose of calculating the school administrative unit’s required contribution to meet the local share of education costs established pursuant to Title 20-A, section 15688, subsection 3-A.
9. It directs the Department of Education to conduct a review of the results of referenda votes on proposed reorganization plans and the status of the reorganization of school administrative units as regional school units consistent with the July 1, 2009 implementation timeline. It also directs the department to develop recommendations related to the circumstances and criteria under which the Commissioner of Education could grant a waiver to a school administrative unit that has not complied with the implementation timelines, including any necessary flexibility that would provide the commissioner with the authority to adjust the timelines for complying with the law, to waive penalties or to approve an alternative plan submitted by a reorganization planning committee. It further directs the department to clarify what happens if voters of an individual school administrative unit fail to approve a reorganization plan that results in the school administrative unit’s not meeting the implementation timeline for reorganization.
10. It provides that the sections of the Act that amend the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 20-A, sections 1305-C, 1701-C and 2307 apply retroactively to January 1, 2008 as long as the retroactivity application does not affect the validity of a budget meeting or budget validation referendum called or conducted in accordance with prior law before the effective date of this Act.
David Connerty-Marin
Director of Communications
Maine Department of Education
Tel: 207-624-6880
Cell: 207-831-3313
Fax: 207-624-6601
E-mail: david.connerty-marin@maine.gov