Goodbye and Hello and Thanks!

By the lack of activity here you knew that something was up.

After approximately two years and 437 posts, we're retiring "Voters." This blog began on April 22, 2006 and ran until June 11, 2008. In that time we posted an average of four times weekly, and we had 43,054 page loads, an average of 391 per week. Not too shabby for a small-town blog!

Nevertheless, our attention has turned in other directions.

Mel is continuing to blog, and continuing to blog about education, though with a somewhat different focus. You can see what he's up to over at DowneastSchoolhouse.com.

Thanks to all our loyal readers, for your time and your attention and your efforts to improve education in our communities.

Exclusive! Tonight's Agenda!

It's another Voters exclusive, the agenda for tonight's meeting of your representatives!

Of note here is a first-ever report from the Adult Education Cooperative. (Whatever happened to the Technical Center Regional Council, a similar cooperative body? Seems as though the Board doesn't have a representative?)

Also of note is the co-curricular and extra-curricular appointments. That and a revision of the "Tabacco" policy!

Budget Referendum Vote Today!

I think democracy a most precious thing, not because any democratic state is perfect, but because it is perfectible. It sounds heartbreakingly banal, but I believe that you cannot even fool most of the people most of the time. They are quite likely to vote in their own interest. I also believe that since a democracy is made up of individual electors, the electors will protect the rights of the individual. A democracy may sometimes grant too little power to its government and at other times allow government to infringe on the rights of the individual -- Prohibition is example enough -- but the vote always offers the means of correcting imbalance...

- A.J. Liebling, The Road Back to Paris (1944)

Congratulations Graduates!

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"Leadership" ?

Look at the budget before us and look at Article 3, "Leadership." The amount is $957,908.

Remember that we're moving toward "administrative consolidation." To that end the State has reduced the amount sent to the districts in support of system administration. For SAD 46, in the present fiscal year, FY08, the State allocated $369,562 for system administration; for FY09, the amount will be $205,938. This approach appears to have been sanctioned by public sentiment.

Now take a walk back through the previous couple of years' budgets. To compare like categories of expenditures, to compare the present article 3, "Leadership", to past years, for past years we must combine Questions 1 (Administrative Expenses, i.e. Superintendent's Office and Business Management), 2 (Board of Directors' Expenses), and 3 (Principal's Expenses).

We find that for "Leadership" we budgeted $888,151 in FY08 and $831,904 in FY07.

Thus, taking FY07 as a baseline, we increased our allocation in this area by 6.7% in the next year. Starting over again with last fiscal year's allocation as a base, what is proposed this year is an increase of 7.8%.

So much for curtailing administrative expenses!

A young person just starting out might think of going into school administration. Where else can one be part of an enterprise which rips along at two and three times the rate of inflation? As the phase goes, "Quite a racket!"

Zipskinny!

http://zipskinny.com/ points to data on towns such as level of educational attainment, age ranges, household income, and so on. It presents census data through a simple zip-driven interface.

After you've done a search, try some of the colored tabs (top and bottom) for more features. The "compare with other zips" feature is especially interesting.

What? What's this have to do with education, or SAD 46?

Well, it might just help answer the old question, so relevant at budget time, of just how it is that you get blood out of a turnip!

08-09 School Budget Revealed (in living black & white)

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You probably got your budget flyer in the mail on Tuesday, the same day as the public informational meeting.

Did you go to the meeting? I went, but I didn't see you! Actually I constituted half -- 50% -- of the public attending; it was not a large turnout :-(

Eight of the thirteen board members attended; this included four out of the six members of the Budget and Finance Committee.

There were eight administrators present.

The voting process was explained, numbers were presented, questions were asked. It was a good time all around. No refreshments.

More anon.

Small High Schools! An Idea Whose Time Has Come?

Ten years ago, when the first NEWSWEEK list based on college-level test participation was published, only three of the top 100 schools had graduating classes smaller than 100 students. This year there are 22. Nearly 250 schools on the full NEWSWEEK list of the top 5 percent of schools nationally, available on Newsweek.com, had fewer than 200 graduates in 2007.

from "Small Schools Rising", Newsweek, May 26, 2008

The complete list is here!