"Open" or "Closed"?

Here's an interesting refinement in the new voting procedure:

Under a new state-mandated budget process, district budgets go through a two-step approval process with the first step being a district budget meeting.

At that meeting, residents have the option of raising or lowering spending levels if the board keeps the articles open. If the board chooses to make the articles closed, spending cannot be increased.

[Superintendent] Colbry said the board opted to keep the articles closed because they were committed to lowering spending.

(from "SAD 54 voters OK budget at hearing" in yesterday's Morning Sentinel)

We'll have to see what boards in this area will choose to do.

And here's an idea that makes so much sense that we, too, wonder if it will pass legal muster!

Cape Elizabeth residents are set to vote on the school budget on June 10. If it fails, town officials want to know why.

Officials hope to pose a non-binding advisory question to residents on the same day. Voters will be asked whether the budget amount is "too high" or "too low," giving town councilors guidance on how to amend the budget, according to Town Clerk Ruth Noble.

Officials are awaiting legal advice from the Maine Municipal Association on whether the advisory question would need its own ballot.

(from a Portland Press Herald update, "Cape Elizabeth school budget: Too high or too low?")

Isn't it sometimes just amazing what you can learn through reading?

RPC: 7 of 12 "Meets or Exceeds the Standard"?

We know they've been working very very hard. The voters will look at their work soon and each voter will make her own judgement as to the quality of that work.

But take a look at the agenda for Monday night's RPC meeting (announced on Saturday -- you had planned to attend, right?). Look at the membership list, and then compare it to those actually present at the last meeting (minutes here).

It was pretty sparsely attended. Of 36 members, 20 were present.

Of the 12 charged with representing SAD 46, only 7 were present.

Looking back through the six sets of minutes available at the RPC web site, here are the statistics.

SAD 46 was represented by 9, 7, 8, 8, 5, 6, and 7 of its 12 representatives, for an average of 7.1 out of 12, or 60% attendance.

The RPC as a whole had 20, 17, 22, 18, 15, 19, and 20 members present. Since the three named members from Willimantic never attended, presumably as a matter of policy, rather than count these attendance figures against a total of 36, we'll count them against a total possible attendance of 33. The average attendance of 18.7 out of 33 yields a rate of 62% attendance.

We note that for many voting bodies a simple majority constitutes a quorum. Against the "official" membership of 36, three out of the seven meetings lacked a quorum.

Other interesting facts:

• a vacancy from Cambridge has never been filled
• five members have never attended (including one from Exeter and one from Garland)
• the superintendents have had a very high rate of attendance
• at least one person on the list no longer represents his town

A number of participants attended every meeting, or all but one. In this district, these good citizens are: Steve Foster, Ella Munday, Julie Willcott, Peter Devine, Steve Gudroe, and Rodney Farrar.

They have our thanks! We hope that they have yours too!!

School Budgets Galore!!

A number of districts are now bringing their budgets out into the light so that the voters can look them over.

Here's a brief look at a number of them.

Click on the district name to get a newspaper article that may illuminate the situation (or not!)

District	Budget Total in M$	Change in State $ in K$	Budget Change %(K$)	Local Change %(K$)
SAD 46	$10.2	+$243	2.2	0
Winthrop	$10.3	-$400	(+$400)	0
Hall-Dale (Hallowell)	$10.4	--	-2.2 (-$245)	--
Winslow	$14.3	-$200	1.5 (+$217)	--
SAD 74 (Anson)	$9.1	--	2.0	--
SAD 49 (Fairfield)	$23.5	+$221	3.0 (+$712)	--
SAD 52 (Turner)	$22.2	-$350	1.3	(+$400)
Lewiston	$45.7	+$705	($1.5M)	--
SAD 34 (Belfast)	$23.0	--	3.8	--
SAD 58 (Salem)	$9.8	-$500	--	--
SAD 53 (Pittsfield)	$10.3	-$410	--	3.2(+$102)
SAD 9 (Farmington)	$23.9	--	($186)	($394)

Budget Update

An article ("Budget plan cuts 10.5 positions") in this morning's Bangor Daily News gives us (most of us) our first glimpse at next year's budget. We'll quote the article here and provide a link when it becomes available.

Update: Here's the link, and here's the lead:

A proposed budget that eliminates the equivalent of 10.5 positions in SAD 46 will be presented to SAD 46 directors for adoption on Wednesday, May 14.

The cuts proposed involve 6½ special education technicians, an elementary teacher, a business education teacher, a high school social worker, and reducing two high school teaching positions in English and science to half-time.

The 2008-2009 spending plan, if adopted, would require the same assessment total as last year, according to SAD 46 Superintendent Kevin Jordan. While the total is the same, Dexter, Exeter, Ripley and Garland may pay more or less depending on changes in state valuation and per-pupil count, he said Monday.

In the meantime, clear your dance calendar, because there are a lot of meetings and events in your future! See the Voters Events Calendar for details, but here's an abbreviated rundown:

May 7 School Board Meeting
May 14 School Board Meeting to Adopt Budget
May 27 Public Informational Budget Meeting
June 5 District Budget Meeting
June 10 Budget Referendum
June 11 School Board Meeting

"Lost" Meeting

No, honest, it really happened, even though traces of it are, well, trace!

Here's the evidence (click to enlarge):This meeting was announced as "Board of Directors Budget Workshop & Adopt 2008-2009 School Budget: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 7:00 PM – Dexter Regional High School– ATM Room" in the agenda (posted 3/31) for the April 2 regular School Board meeting. You saw it there, didn't you!

As it turns out, the Budget was not adopted -- hardly surprising given the topsy-turvy financial/legal/cumulo-nimbo environment.

However, the budget seems to have hardly been discussed, from the evidence of the minutes.

It looks as though it really was a Special Meeting, to deal with overlooked business (permission to use buses for the circus trip) and to discuss negotiations (with the ed techs?).

Don't look for the minutes here anytime soon. If anyone should ask, tell 'em you saw it on Voters!

New "Leahw"

A look at the new revisions to the education consolidation ("administrative consolidation") law shows, I think you'll agree, that you can work 'til midnight, but you're not necessarily doing your best work at that hour.

Look at the law itself (LD 2323, An Act To Remove Barriers to the Reorganization of School Administrative Units), or at the summary provided (so helpful!) by the Department of Education.

Here's a part we really like:

§ 1478. Local school committees

1. Formation. A reorganization plan under section 1461 or a regional school unit board may authorize the formation of a local school committee for a member municipality established in accordance with chapter 111, subchapter 1.

2. Delegation of functions. A reorganization plan that has been approved in accordance with subchapter 2 or a regional school unit board may delegate a local school committee to perform any duties, functions and services other than those reserved to the regional school unit under subchapter 1. The core functions provided by a regional school unit pursuant to section 1452 may be supplemented at the expense of any member municipality.

3. Budget responsibility. A reorganization plan that has been approved in accordance with subchapter 2 or a regional school unit board may authorize a local school committee to present to the board a proposed budget for the local school in a form that is consistent with section 1485. The proposed local school budget must be submitted in time to be included in the budget for the regional school unit. Proposed expenditures that are not included in the regional school unit budget may be separately appropriated by the municipality to be expended by the regional school unit in accordance with the appropriation. Supplemental municipal appropriations for education are not subject to section 1486.

4. Title to property. School property overseen by a local school committee may be owned either by the municipality or by the regional school unit as long as there is a clear allocation of responsibilities for management of all of the school property in the regional school unit.

This is a tasty bit:

Sec. 6. 20-A MRSA §1464, sub-§4 is enacted to read:

4. Application of collective bargaining agreements. On or after the operational date of a regional school unit established pursuant to section 1463, subsection 1 but before the completion of negotiations for a single regional school unit-wide collective bargaining agreement for the regional school unit-wide bargaining unit as described in subsection 3, the wages, hours and working conditions of an employee of the regional school unit who is in a bargaining unit and who is reassigned to a different position that is or, upon the completion of the merger of bargaining units, will be included in the same regional school unit-wide bargaining unit are determined by the terms of the existing collective bargaining agreement that applies to the position to which the employee is reassigned, except as provided in this subsection.

A. If the application of the existing collective bargaining agreement would cause a reduction in the employee's wage or salary rate, the employee's wage or salary rate must be maintained at the rate the employee was paid immediately prior to the reassignment until the completion of negotiations for a single regional school unit-wide collective bargaining agreement for the regional school unit-wide bargaining unit as described in subsection 3 or the applicable collective bargaining agreement or any interim successor agreement requires a higher wage or salary rate for the employee, whichever occurs sooner.

B. If the application of the existing collective bargaining agreement would cause a reduction in the amount that is paid by the regional school unit for premiums for health insurance for the employee and the employee's dependents, the regional school unit's payment must be maintained at the amount that was paid immediately prior to the reassignment until the completion of negotiations for a single regional school unit-wide collective bargaining agreement for the regional school unit-wide bargaining unit as described in subsection 3 or the applicable collective bargaining agreement or any interim successor agreement requires a higher payment, whichever occurs sooner.

C. If the application of the existing collective bargaining agreement provides for coverage under a different health insurance plan, the employee may elect to retain coverage under the health insurance plan in which the employee was enrolled immediately prior to reassignment if the eligibility provisions of the plan permit until the completion of negotiations for a single regional school unit-wide collective bargaining agreement for the regional school unit-wide bargaining unit as described in subsection 3.

This will be of local interest:

Sec. 13. 20-A MRSA §1479, sub-§5, as enacted by PL 2007, c. 240, Pt. XXXX, §13, is amended to read:

5. Additional expense. If, pursuant to subsection 4, a student attends a public school in another school administrative unit or private school approved for tuition purposes subject to the provisions of chapter 219, and the number of secondary school students from one or more municipalities in a regional school unit that attend a public school in a different school administrative unit or an approved private school is less than all the secondary school students in the regional school unit, the sending municipality of the regional school unit is responsible for the additional expense calculated under this subsection. In a regional school unit where some but not all of the students are attending school pursuant to this section, the sending municipality is responsible for the additional expense as calculated in accordance with this subsection.

A. For each secondary school student who attends a public school in another school administrative unit, the sending municipality in a regional school unit is responsible for an amount equal to the number of secondary school students from that regional school unit multiplied by the amount that the receiving regional school unit’s tuition rate pursuant to section 5805 difference in tuition in cases when it exceeds the amount of the sending regional school unit’s tuition rate pursuant to calculated in accordance with section 5805.

B. For each secondary school student who attends a private school approved for tuition purposes subject to the provisions of chapter 219, the sending municipality in a regional school unit is responsible for an amount equal to the number of secondary school students from the regional school unit attending the private school multiplied by the amount that the private school’s tuition rate pursuant to section 5806, or the tuition rate per the contract, if less, the difference in tuition in cases when it exceeds the amount of the sending regional school unit’s tuition rate pursuant to calculated in accordance with section 5805.

Any Municipalities exercising school choice pursuant to this section are responsible for a local contribution in accordance with section 15688 and the additional expense may not be included in the regional school unit budget when determining each member municipality's local contribution calculated in accordance with this subsection.

There's much more of interest: cost-sharing, the budget validation process (and Thursday's today's clarification from the DOE), allocation of debt and debt service, reorganization timelines, and "alternative organizational structures."

That's not a typo in the post title; just as Inspector Clouseau mangles the word "law" in the Pink Panther movies, many feel that so too the solons of Augusta have mangled the real thing.

Skip Greenlaw, who's not half so giddy as some about the result, provides some additional insights into the process.

Poor Science, Boiled Truth

The article title is "Intent on addressing Maine's science teacher shortage", and you'll find an excerpt and a link to the full text over at Articles of Interest, along with a varied lot of other interesting and timely material. Every day the discerning editors at Articles winnow the chaff from the wheat (in educational news) and deliver the best right to your electronic doorstep!

The lead of the piece really got our attention:

Put a frog in water and gradually heat the liquid.

What happens?

Frances Eberle, executive director of the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, will tell you that the frog doesn't notice the temperature change until it's too late to escape.

The story serves as Eberle's cautionary tale about the shortage of math and science teachers in Maine's public schools.

What got our attention is that this tale of the frog not noticing the temperature change in its surrounding water is just plain wrong. It's a myth!

Take a look here for an explanation.

In a way, this error proves the point: the need for good science teachers has never been greater!

They Got Theirs!

A gloating piece ("New law is victory for MDI schools") in the Bar Harbor Times gives us a glimpse into the deal-making around efforts to revise the reorganization law in the waning days of the recently-adjourned legislature. (Did this legislature ever wax?)

The article -- in an approving manner -- details the back-and-forth between the Governor, the Commissioner*, the MDI RPC, and Richard Spencer of Drummond, Woodsum in crafting a deal that would give Union 98 special rights (my phrase!) in the future. The writer, Dick Broom, is confident that MDI has a sure thing, that is, that they will be able to get approval for their present arrangements, though under another name. By the way, you, the taxpayer, footed the bill for Spencer. Nice touch, that!

We're a little cautious here at Voters about any such deal holding. But if it does, then in the process of getting theirs, the good folks of MDI have put greater powers into the hands of the Department of Education and the Commish*, namely that of issuing "waivers." (We'll let you know the criteria for such waivers when we find out.)

Experienced readers of Voters know that this is where we cue the music. Yes, we've used it before, we know, but there are just so many situations where this verse is just so appropriate, don't you think?

There ain't no room for the hopeless sinner
Who would hurt all mankind just to save his own
Have pity on those whose chances grow thinner
For there's no hiding place against the Kingdom's throne
-People Get Ready, Curtis Mayfield

*Hereafter, "the Commish", just to give her title the sort of back-room, gangster-movie overtones that it now deserves!