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Letter of Intent Information
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Dear Citizens,
Ordinarily I would begin the new school year with a message of new initiatives, projects completed over the summer break and information about our newly hired staff. This is no ordinary year. Due to the passage of legislation requiring school district consolidation we, along with most other districts in Maine, are embarking on the biggest change to public education the state has seen in over 50 years.
To bring you up to date, on August 29 the School Committee and Town Council met jointly to receive the recommendation of the Steering Committee for the Regionalization Planning Committee (RPC). The RPC made up of three Councilors, two School Committee members, and eight citizens, recommended the districts of Freeport, Pownal and Durham as consolidation partners.
The School Committee endorsed this recommendation and in addition included the Yarmouth school system in the Letter of Intent to the Commissioner of Education. One reason for doing this is because the Freeport-Pownal-Durham grouping results in a school population below the 2500 student minimum. Although we have requested consideration of this number in a separate document, we have included Yarmouth.
We expect to hear a response from the Commissioner no later than September 15. Once we know our partners the real work begins. We have between then and December 1, 2007 to craft a Reorganization Plan. We will request a Facilitator from the Department and a first order of business will be to develop the Regionalization Planning Committee made up of membership from all of the partner towns-Town Council, School Committee, and a Citizen Representative at the very least- along with the Superintendents.
Once the Reorganization Plan is solidified it will go to the voters of each of the towns involved for a public vote.
As with all the work we do, we want to keep the public informed. We will continue to post updates under the Consolidation heading on this website, any meeting notices will be publicized, and if you have specific questions please feel free to e-mail, call or write to me or any member of the School Committee.
I want to assure you our schools are ready to open on Tuesday, September 4 and we will do our very best to ensure consolidation does not distract us from our number one job- providing the best education possible for all the students of Freeport.
Next week we will update you on the opening activities.
Sincerely,
Elaine Tomaszewski
Superintendent of Schools
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