Two bills proposed to address UT school-choice controversy

The controversy that erupted last spring about where students living in area unorganized territories (UT) attend elementary school has been relatively quiet since the new school year began, but it's expected to heat up again once the legislature goes into session in January. At least two bills are being proposed, one to provide school choice for UT students and another to eliminate the Education in the Unorganized Territory (EUT) office in Augusta and to ensure that financial information about the state-run schools is available.
The issue came to a head in April, when parents living in Trescott, Cathance and Marion townships received letters from EUT Director Shelley Lane that their children would have to attend the EUT school in the area, the Edmunds Consolidated School, instead of other area elementary schools, beginning with the 2016-17 school year. However, this year at least 26 students living in those three unorganized territories are attending schools other than the Edmunds school, with half of those students not having approval from the state to attend a non-EUT school.
In May, parents had expressed their displeasure with the policy change at a meeting held in Whiting, and a number of families appealed to allow their children to continue to attend a non-EUT school, with reportedly seven out of 12 families having their appeal requests denied. Families felt that Deputy Commissioner of Education William Beardsley had backtracked on a promise made at the Whiting meeting to approve waivers if parents stated reasons in their request explaining why remaining at a town school was in the best interests of the student.
According to EUT Director Shelley Lane, 13 students who live in the UT are currently attending schools other than the Edmunds school after being granted alternative placement approvals based on compelling reasons for an alternative educational setting. Another 13 students are attending other schools without alternative placements. "They could be denied, not ever requested or denied after an appeal," she says. A few UT students have switched over to the Edmunds Consolidated School. Lane reports that last year the Edmunds school served 55 students and this year has 60, with eight students attending from Trescott, Marion and Cathance.
However, according to area superintendents, there are 31 UT students, not 26, who are attending area elementary schools, with 19 of them approved. Scott Porter, superintendent of AOS 96, says all of the four UT students at the Rose M. Gaffney School in Machias are approved to attend a non-EUT school, six of the 12 at the Elm Street School in East Machias are approved and four of the 10 at the Whiting Village School are approved. There is also one at the Bay Ridge Elementary School in Cutler. For AOS 77 schools, one Trescott student is at Lubec Elementary School and three Edmunds students are attending Perry Elementary School. All of those students have been approved.
While the EUT pays the tuition for those students who have been granted waivers to attend a non-EUT school, for those UT students who have not been approved, the parents have been paying the tuition. In September Lane sent a letter to parents whose appeals were denied informing them that they would be fully responsible for the tuition costs for their students to attend non-EUT schools. Porter notes that the tuition situation has had some effect on school budgets in AOS 96.
The EUT policy change was meant to realize cost savings in its budget, particularly with transportation costs, and it was estimated last May that the change would save the statewide UT about $250,000. Lane now says the anticipated saving to the UT taxpayers is calculated to be around $200,947 over last year's actual costs. "This includes tuition, cancelled bus, conveyance agreements no longer needed, renegotiated transportation and fuel saving," says Lane. "It will be clearer when the year concludes and we look at the numbers." She adds, "The numbers are somewhat fluid as families move in and out of the area."
Lane says that some of the savings are not just in tuition costs but also a direct result of busing changes. "Working with area superintendents to establish efficient busing has been productive for the UT," she says. "We are providing transportation to district children, such as Pre‑K, as well as our own. This give and take is necessary in small rural regions. I appreciate the cooperation with the other systems."
Busing for UT students, though, has been an issue, with the Lubec school board wrestling with the request to transport a Trescott student to Machias Memorial High School. And the Eastport School Committee decided last spring to send a bus this year to pick up students at Edmunds after the EUT discontinued its bus from Edmunds to Eastport.

Legislation proposed
Those who have been opposed to the EUT policy change have tried to obtain information about the costs at EUT schools but have been stymied in their efforts. Porter says, "We've had a difficult time getting information on the EUT schools." Rep. Will Tuell of East Machias was able to get financial information about the Edmunds Consolidated School early on, but a Freedom of Information Act request for information about the two other EUT schools, Connor Consolidated School in Aroostook County and Kingman Elementary School in Penobscot County, was unsuccessful. "Once the controversy got going, they refused to give us school-level data. It's remarkable to me," Porter says, noting that it's a state agency but "you can't get information from them."
Porter notes that legislation is being proposed concerning both the release of information about EUT schools and school choice for students living in the UT. "I think it will be a big topic for the education committee," he says.
Rep. Tuell has proposed two bills to be considered during the upcoming session, one of which will give school choice to those families residing in the unorganized territories where there is no school. The second bill will require that the Department of Education report financial information and budgets for the EUT schools just as every other school has to report that information. "This will also apply to academic reporting requirements as well," says Tuell. The bill also eliminates the EUT office in Augusta and puts administration at the local level.
Tuell also notes, "If school choice for the UTs doesn't happen, this bill puts an appeals process in place for parents seeking an alternative school for their kids, instead of leaving the whole thing up to DOE [Department of Education] as they go along. There is also a possibility we will be requiring that DOE notify the community at least a year in advance if they decide to shuffle kids around, as opposed to what went down this past spring."