12 Towns Need to Approve New Machias-Area School Structure

Concerns Expressed over Funding Allocation, Politicization of Decision-making

By Will Tuell

Downeast Coastal Press, October 7, 2008

The Machias-area Regional Planning Committee (RPC), charged with forming an alternative organizational structure (AOS) under Maine's controversial school consolidation law, agreed September 30 to send a preliminary proposal to the Department of Education (DOE) and Commissioner of Education Susan Gendron.

“If you vote to move this forward tonight,” said Union 102 Supt. Scott Porter, referring to a draft inter-local agreement outlining the structure of the proposed new school unit from Jonesboro to Lubec, “you're not voting that you agree with it. You're not even voting to take it to the school committees. You're voting to send this to the [DOE] so they can look at it, mark it up in red and say this is what needs [to be] changed.”

Each of the 12 member towns in the RPC must approve the plan, as well as the RPC planning committee, before it can be formally sent on to Gendron for final approval. Should one or more towns school boards fail to do so, the whole unit could face loss of state subsidy for non-compliance with the law itself, as any town defection would likely put the amalgamation at less than 1,000 students—the law's absolute minimum required for a reorganization plan.

Porter said later in the week that DOE officials had received the drafts and that he would work over the weekend to review them and have their feedback for consideration at the next RPC meeting on October 9. Area school committees are also being asked to meet at Elm Street School in East Machias and approve a final plan the same night, so that a formal plan can be submitted in advance of the November 14 deadline.

“We know that this is not perfect,” said Jonesboro representative Ed White, stressing that the RPC has an obligation to adhere to the letter of the law and submit a plan to DOE which can then be put to voters before the legally mandated deadline of January 30, 2009. “We know it's not, and it will be changed. What we have to do is provide the commissioner with these two documents [draft inter-local agreement and alternative organization structure] plan saying, 'Here, rip 'em apart, send 'em back to us; we'll try to doctor them up.' I think that's what we need to do.”

Once the proposal has been submitted, Gendron has the power to accept or reject. By sending it in draft form, the committee hopes to eliminate unforeseen delays and be able to schedule public informational meetings and hold town votes in December or January.

Draft Details Outlined

The draft calls for a 17-member AOS board with oversight over a central office that will provide district-wide administrative and financial services; ensure consistent curricula and school calendars; work with collective bargaining agreements; and handle transportation services and subsidy allocation.

The proposal has been crafted to allow for as much local control as permitted without municipalities opting out of the law. At this point, each municipality could retain its local school board, school buildings and real estate, and personnel. They will also retain control over their budget, although the governing AOS board will have control over subsidy allotments.

As it stands in draft form, the AOS board will be comprised of three representatives from Machias, two from East Machias, Machiasport and Lubec, and one each from Cutler, Jonesboro, Marshfield, Northfield, Roque Bluffs, Wesley, Whiting and Whitneyville. Each member will have a weighted vote allocated on a one-man, one-vote principle and based on the most recent U.S. Census figures for each of the member towns.

Under this arrangement, the most voting power would accrue to Machias, which would receive nearly 240 “points” for its three board members. By comparison, Northfield's lone member would get 14 votes.

As has been the case in school administrative district governance structures that operate under similar rules (the town with the greatest population has the most votes), it is possible for a coalition of members from smaller towns to combine votes with the effect of overruling the vote of the largest town. In the now defunct SAD 77, the smaller towns of Whiting, Cutler and Machiasport often formed a voting bloc to act in their own interests which were sometimes at the expense of the largest member, East Machias, which attracted the largest state subsidy and paid the most in local tax contributions. East Machias claimed it was being treated unfairly, giving rise to the town’s decision to withdraw from the governance unit, a move that ultimately led to the dissolution of SAD 77. Under the new state law, member towns of RSUs will not be allowed to withdraw once they become a member of an RSU.

Subsidy Allocation an Issue of Concern

Of concern to planners well beyond the short-term impact of school consolidation is the way state officials will be parceling out subsidy checks.

“I know my board and townspeople and everybody else's are going to want to know what is this going to cost?” said Mike Buckley, superintendent of SAD 19 in Lubec. He suggested that RPC members should think twice before approving any plan for submission without knowing how subsidies are to be divvied up.

Porter said that figures would be ready for the public as the plan moves forward, but that beyond this next fiscal year, everyone will be “going blind” because the state will no longer produce subsidy allocation sheets specific to each member town as they do with a school union structure currently.

“As I told you folks before,” said Porter, “there is no way to design a formula that will make everybody like they are now. Keep in mind for funding, this AOS is one unit. It puts all the employees under that one unit and figures an EPS rate for all 12 towns. Now it does it per town. What happens if you don't have a school? It's based on where [your kids] go to school.”

As for special education funding, Porter said that the state itself doesn't have answers on how to fairly distribute monies, and is not being very cooperative in helping those who are working to form AOS units, as the AOS was formed to get rural Democrats such as Sen. Dennis Damon (D-Trenton) and Rep. Hannah Pingree (D-North Haven) on board with the governor's amendment package in April. Damon’s and Pingree’s constituents on Mount Desert Island were among the those leading the opposition to the new law.

“There's different things you can base it [special ed funding] on,” he said. “There is nothing that is going to give you exactly what you would've received. It is absolutely mathematically impossible. I've talked to DOE, Jim Rier himself, and they can't figure out how to do it. They're not saying too much about the AOS structures because I don't think they like them. But there is no way, mathematically, Machias is going to get what Machias would've gotten if they'd been on their own. You may get more, you may get less. You're never going to get the same. It's impossible to do it.”

The RPC will next meet at 6 p.m., Thursday, October 9, at Elm Street School in East Machias.