Consolidation vote set for January 13

Residents in eastern and northern Washington County will go to the polls on Tuesday, January 13, to cast votes in favor of or against the state-mandated administrative reorganization plan for their schools. The plan, developed by a Reorganization Planning Committee, followed a template outlined by the Department of Education to reorganize the school systems for 20 area towns.

The referendum question reads, "Do you favor approving the school administrative reorganization plan prepared by the Region #13 Reorganization Planning Committee to reorganize East Range CSD #12, the Calais School District (also known as the Calais School Department) and the school departments of Alexander, Robbinston, Baring Plantation, Crawford, Charlotte, Perry, Baileyville, Cooper, Grand Lake Stream Plantation, Meddybemps, Eastport, Princeton, Talmadge, Waite, Pembroke, Dennysville and Vanceboro into a regional school unit, with an effective date of July 1, 2009?"

Polls will open from 3 to 7 p.m. for Charlotte, Perry and Pembroke at their regular voting locations. Polls in Eastport are open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Shead High School and in Dennysville at the Dennysville/Edmunds Congregational Church Parish Hall from 1 to 8 p.m. Absentee ballots are available by calling town offices.

Questions to consider

The Maine Small Schools Coalition (MSSC), based in Greenville, has released a guide for voters to help evaluate the plan for regions facing a new regional school unit (RSU). According to MSSC, questions voters might ask before going to the polls are: "Will this plan save us money? What are the savings to combine superintendent's offices and personnel? Are they short- or long-term savings? What savings (or new costs) will there be from negotiating one 'consistent' contract for teachers and, possibly, administrators and support staff (transportation, cooks, clerical, maintenance)? Have the figures been calculated over the next five years? What other savings are in the plan? What new costs will likely come with the plan?"

Other questions are: "What specific steps does the plan include to strengthen programs and services for children? What existing programs will remain? Can we determine educational programs and staffing? What about how each school chooses to spend? Can we determine other community uses for our school facilities? Will the plan be fair to all partner towns and citizens? Does the plan fairly tax all towns in the region? How does it 'equalize' the burden of paying for schools among all towns? Does it fairly distribute funds?"

Forums in the area offered information to voters in early December. If residents vote in favor of the plan, it goes into effect July 1, 2009. If voters reject the plan, the Reorganization Planning Committee may convene, according to the state, repeat the process to revise the plan, or submit an alternative organizational structure, or an AOS. This alternative plan would combine two or more school administrative units, consolidate central offices on a smaller scale, would keep local school boards, develop local budgets and keep local contracts. The Department of Education could take into consideration the demographics of the area if an area submitted an AOS but would only unbundle one subsidy check to the combined school system. The timeline to submit another plan would be by July 1, 2009.

If passed, the new RSU will be governed by a regional school unit board. Representation on the board would be determined by local communities as part of the process. The RSU board would have duties such as the employment of one superintendent, central business operations, administration of special education, transportation issues and location, core curriculum and the employment of all RSU employees.

The RSU plan can be viewed at the website at <www.shead.org>.