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A Memo to Our Community Regarding Consolidation
On August 31st Freeport filed its notice of intent regarding consolidation partners. The purpose of this memo is to provide some quick information about the status of consolidation.
As many of you know, meetings regarding consolidation began last February in the midst of the intense legislative discussion regarding consolidation. It was very clear at that time that a consolidation bill would pass, and so we began meeting regularly with representatives from Falmouth, SAD 51 (Cumberland/North Yarmouth), Yarmouth and Pownal. With financial help from a grant from the Department of Education we hired the New England School Development Council ("NESDEC") to study consolidation and to look at possible partners from this group. This effort involved a lot of early-morning meetings, and these meetings included representatives from our respective legislative delegations as well as meetings with the Commissioner and her staff from the Department of Education. Long and short, this group of school districts disbanded after disappointing financial news from the NESDEC study, and also due to the fact that Yarmouth was clearly much less
interested in consolidation than any other participant in this group. More on Yarmouth later in this memo.
The summer brought many more meetings for school committee members, our superintendent and business manager. Brunswick invited contiguous school districts to two meetings to discuss consolidation, and we attended both. The school committees of Freeport, Pownal and Durham also met on three separate occasions. Importantly, the Town Council and the School Committee agreed to create a community committee to study possible partners for Freeport. The original makeup of the committee was to be two school committee members, three town council members, and five members of the community. We asked interested community members to send us their resumes if they would like to serve on this committee. We had seven terrific candidates apply, so the decision was made to include all seven community members. Beth Parker of the School Committee and Rick White of the Town Council were appointed as co-chairs. Throughout the month of August they met two to
three times per week to gather information about possible partners. They put in a lot of time, did a lot of work, and I think we all owe them a very big "thank you" for sacrificing many a summer night to talk about possible partners and what is best for education in Freeport.
Based upon all of the above, the committee recommended that Freeport pursue consolidation with Durham and Pownal. Secondarily, the door has been left open to discuss consolidation with Yarmouth. Below are some quick thoughts as to the background of these decisions.
Freeport, Pownal and Durham: Financially, this partnership makes the most sense. According to our calculations, the financial "downside" would be to Durham, as they would have paid approximately $140,000 more had we been consolidated this past year, and Freeport would have paid approximately $140,000 less. Durham will be voting regarding the construction of a new K - 8 school, and Durham is a source of additional students for our high school where our numbers are declining. Importantly, Pownal and Durham strongly feel that consolidation with Freeport will help preserve their sense of community and will be a true partnership based upon common history, common experience, and a real respect for one another. You can find out more about this possible consolidation by reviewing the 2500 student exemption letter which can be accessed via the Consolidation button of this website.
Yarmouth: Yarmouth has made it very clear that they are very much interested in the high-performance "opt out" provision of the consolidation law. This means that they can choose to not consolidate and not face financial penalties. Yarmouth is justifiably proud of their school system, and, to be frank, they do not see the benefits or opportunities in consolidation that surrounding school districts do. They remain open to discussing consolidation, but also made it clear that they are very much on a "slow track" regarding consolidation. Another real concern for Freeport is that our calculations show that a consolidation with Yarmouth would cause Freeport taxpayers approximately an additional $900,000, as a result of the differences in valuation between the two communities and in the difference in the amount of local money appropriated for the school budgets. We plan to meet with representatives from Yarmouth in the very near
future to discuss the most recent information regarding consolidation and to explore their interest in consolidation now or down the road.
Brunswick: On August 15 William Dana, the Chair of the Brunswick School Committee, forwarded to me the following message: The financial data we have been given to date do not indicate that it would be in Brunswick' best interest to pursue further discussions with Freeport, concerning consolidation. I do hope that we will continue to have discussions regarding regionalization of services which might seem appropriate to both towns. Thanks again for talking to us, and for giving us valuable input.
The Next Steps: On or about September 14, the Commissioner will notify Freeport about her decision regarding our choice of partners. Assuming she approves our choice, we will need to move expeditiously into the next phase of consolidation planning. Jim Cassida, chair of the Town Council and Chris Leighton, chair of the School Committee will choose three or four individuals to help form what the consolidation law calls the Reorganization Planning Committee. The goal of the committee is to put together a detailed plan for consolidation. This plan is due in the Commissioner's office on December 1, 2007. This plan must include the following components:
-The size, composition and apportionment of the governing body;
-The method of voting of the governing body;
-The composition, powers and duties of any local school committees to be created;
-The disposition of real and personal school property;
-The disposition of existing school indebtedness and lease - purchase obligations;
-The assignment of school personnel contracts, school collective bargaining agreements and other school contractual obligations;
-The disposition of existing school funds and existing financial oblations, including undesignated fund balances, trust funds, reserve funds and of the funds appropriated for school purposes;
- A transition plan that addresses the development of a budget for the first school year of the reorganized unit and interim personnel policies;
-Documentation of a public meeting or public meetings held to prepare a review of the reorganization plan;
-An explanation of how units that approve 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 cost will be reduced; and
-Such other matters as the governing bodies of the school administrative units may determine to be necessary
As you can see, this is a HUGE task! Something we may consider is forming advisory subcommittees to assist the Reorganization Planning Committee with its work. For example, asking for some volunteers from administrators and teachers from each of the partner districts to work on the educational component of the consolidation would seem to be a very wise idea!
For more information: Please keep an eye on the Freeport public schools website. On our title page there is a Consolidation button. Currently we have posted information about our planning committee that met in August, and there you can find the minutes of the meetings of the committee. This will provide you with a fair amount of material about the choice of consolidation partners. As we move forward into the Reorganization Planning Committee work we will attempt to keep the minutes posted as soon as they are available. Importantly, the meetings of this committee are public and you are invited to watch them on TV or attend them in person. Finally, we are all very interested in your thoughts and concerns about consolidation. On the consolidation page, as on all pages of our website, we have a "Comments?" button to allow you to contact us via e-mail. We will make sure it gets to the right person, you get a response, and it becomes part of the record of this process.
Chris Leighton, Chair
Freeport School Committee | |
