 |
Consolidation Update -October 1, 2007
Current Status: Freeport has established its delegation to the Reorganization Planning Committee ("RPC"). The members are John Gleason, Rick White, Marge Migliaccio, Fred Palmer, and alternate Nelson Larkins. Please keep in mind that our delegation is not the RPC. Under the consolidation law, the RPC is the group of partner communities who plan for consolidation. For instance, delegations from Freeport, Pownal and Durham would constitute an RPC. At the present time there are two RPCs forming: Freeport, Pownal and Durham, and Freeport, Pownal and Yarmouth.
Our Notice of Intent regarding partners has been approved by the Commissioner. The Commissioner has specifically approved the plan to discuss consolidation with Pownal and Durham, and we believe we are free to pursue consolidation discussions with Yarmouth and have filed a clarification letter with the Commissioner to that effect. Our delegation will be attending both RPC meetings. Our plan is to have the RPC meetings televised, or at the very least, taped for rebroadcast. The public is more than welcome to come to these meetings!
The first meeting of the Freeport, Pownal and Durham RPC is Wednesday, October 3, at 7:00PM at Morse Street School, Room 17.
As soon as these RPCs establish a meeting schedule they will be posted on this website. We also anticipate sending the schedule out through student newsletters and via e-mail on our schools' e-mail chains.
What will the RPC decide? The RPC is advisory to the School Committees of the partner communities. If all goes well, on or about the end of November the RPC will present its plan to our School Committees. It is the responsibility of each School Committee to then file a plan with the Commissioner by December 1, 2007. The scope of the plan is very ambitious. The plan must include the following components:
-The size, composition and apportionment of the governing body;
-The method of voting of the governing body;
-The disposition of real and personal school property;
-The disposition of existing school indebtedness
-The assignment of school personnel contracts, school collective bargaining agreements and other school contractual obligations;
-The disposition of existing school funds and existing financial obligations;
- A transition plan that addresses the development of a budget for the first school year and interim personal policies;
-Documentation of a public meeting or public meetings held to prepare a review of the reorganization plan;
-An explanation of how units that approved the reorganization plan will proceed if one or more of the proposed members of the regional school unit failed to approve the plan;
-An estimate of the cost savings to be achieved through formation of a regional school unit and how court costs will be reduced
As stated above, this level of planning is truly ambitious given that we have only approximately eight weeks, including the Thanksgiving holiday, before December 1. The Commissioner and her staff have recognized this as an issue, and have recently indicated that they will consider less than fully developed plans as long as the school districts have planned in good faith.
It is also important to understand that the role of the RPC is to find a plan that works for our communities -- it is not "consolidation at any cost". The RPC may find a plan that works, or they may find that no plan works to the benefit of our communities. The RPC is about the exploration of options, and at the present time our options are as follows:
-Freeport, Pownal and Durham
-Freeport, Pownal and Yarmouth
-Freeport "stand alone" and face financial penalties
-A Freeport Pownal "donut hole" without financial penalties
The last two options are worth exploring simply to understand the consolidation world we live in. The law is very clear that if you do not consolidate, and you do not meet one of the exclusions for consolidation, then you will face fairly serious financial penalties for your failure to consolidate. It is worth knowing the cost of those penalties, if only for a reference point. The "doughnut hole" model is one that could exist if both Durham and Yarmouth decide, for whatever reason, that consolidation with Freeport and Pownal is not in their communities' best interest. If that occurred, we would probably ask the Commissioner for a "doughnut hole" exception, i.e., despite our good-faith efforts we could not find a partner (assuming the Commissioner would agree with us that Freeport and Pownal coming together does not trigger a consolidation under the law). If the Commissioner were to find us to be a "doughnut hole", we would
not face financial penalties. The "doughnut hole" model only works if we cannot find a partner, but again, it is worth understanding what that model might look like for our communities.
The initial financial impact of consolidation. One of the big issues for any RPC is to consider the financial impacts of consolidation. This is a very complex subject, and it is fair to say that there has been much discussion between school districts and the Department of Education about the numbers. It will certainly be the goal of the RPC, working in conjunction with the Department of Education, to come up with some solid numbers upon which to base their decisions around consolidation planning.
So, while these are very preliminary numbers, here is an explanation of what the numbers look like as of October 2 (the numbers below have been shared with the Department of Education, and they appear to be agreed upon):
About 85% of all districts are "over EPS" because EPS (Essential Programs and Services, the state formula for funding schools) only funds the very basics.
Yarmouth with 1395 pupils spends about $4 million over EPS in local funds or 30%
Freeport with 1168 pupils spends about $1.8 million over EPS in local funds or 13%
Pownal with 219 pupils spends $421,000 over EPS in local funds, or 8%
Durham with 568 pupils spends $ 573,000 over EPS in local funds, or 1%
In a new Regional School Unit ("RSU"), all the "local only" money is combined then reapportioned using a formula which is based on valuation.
As an example, in a Freeport, Pownal, Yarmouth RSU Freeport and Pownal would pay about $1.1 million to offset Yarmouth's local share. In a Freeport, Pownal and Durham consolidation, Durham would have to pay about $140,000 to offset Freeport's local share. This is just to join the RSU - no improvements in programs, no leveling up of salaries, no increase in days or professional development, which we assume would all be requests for the future.
We must continue to caution that these are preliminary numbers, and only a start to the analysis. For instance, we must include computations for any increase in state funding (if Durham joins, as their district has an increasing number of students) and decreases in funding (because the state has already stripped away $36 million is "savings" that are supposed to come from consolidation) The RPC must figure in the savings that might flow from a new management structure and any other efficiencies that might be gained from consolidation (or conversely, new costs that might arise because of consolidation). While these are some of the major factors in assessing the financial implications of consolidation, there are many others. As you can see, this is no easy task!
Educational quality. If you review the list of items supplied by the state that the RPC must concern itself with an important item you will not see - educational quality. It should go without saying that the quality of education has to be the number one objective whether or not the Legislature saw fit to build this most important of considerations into the consolidation law. Given all that the RSU has on its plate, it is the Freeport School Committee's recommendation to consider forming an additional advisory committee, one consisting of educational professionals from the partner communities.
Your questions and concerns. We want to hear your questions and concerns. Please feel free to e-mail the RPC via Elaine Tomaszewski, Superintendent, at elaine_tomaszewski@coconetme.org for questions for her or the School Committee. She will pass them on, and we will do our best to answer your questions promptly and bring your questions and concerns to the RPC and the School Committee.
| |
