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Log inN.H., Maine schools head in different directions
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N.H., Maine schools head in different directions
by Outspoken on Sun Aug 17, 2008 5:21 am
N.H., Maine schools head in different directions
BY MATTHEW STONE
Staff Writer Morning Sentinel
During Susan Hodgdon's last year as a school superintendent in Maine, a state law pushing school districts to consolidate their administrative offices consumed much of her time.
Now, as superintendent of the two-town New Hampshire School Administrative Unit 41, Hodgdon finds one of her towns weighing a separation from the other.
"I went for the two extremes," said Hodgdon, who moved to the New Hampshire school system in July after two years as superintendent of School Union 44, which serves Litchfield, Sabattus and Wales.
As Maine continues with its push to lower the number of school districts in the state, New Hampshire is trending in the opposite direction.
By July 1 of next year, the Maine Department of Education is hoping the state will be down to 80 school districts from the current count of 290. In New Hampshire, the number of school districts -- or School Administrative Units, as they are known in the Granite State -- is likely to continue inching up.
Since 2000, eight new school administrative units have formed in New Hampshire, largely the result of individual towns deciding to split from multi-town school units. The state now has 85 school administrative units, up from 77 in 2000. Separate school districts, approximately 175 of them mostly drawn upon municipal lines, make up the larger administrative units.
Unlike in Maine, where the mandate for districts to consolidate comes from the state, New Hampshire's school districts have decided to split independently of any state government push.
Since New Hampshire disburses state funding to individual municipal districts, and not to School Administrative Units, the state would not save money from pushing towns to merge into larger school systems, said Sarah Browning, special assistant to New Hampshire's education commissioner.
New Hampshire superintendents and other school officials cite a variety of factors driving some of the state's school administrative units to separate.
In Hodgdon's School Administrative Unit 41, municipal officials in Hollis have formed a task force to consider separating from longtime partner Brookline.
"The largest issue driving that is a community's identity," Hodgdon said. "I think that's very similar to what I experienced with my work on consolidation in Maine."
In New Hampshire, said Theodore Comstock, executive director of the New Hampshire School Boards Association, many communities seek closer control over their local schools. It's the same spirit that has formed the crux of many residents' opposition to school-district consolidation in Maine.
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5323633.html
BY MATTHEW STONE
Staff Writer Morning Sentinel
During Susan Hodgdon's last year as a school superintendent in Maine, a state law pushing school districts to consolidate their administrative offices consumed much of her time.
Now, as superintendent of the two-town New Hampshire School Administrative Unit 41, Hodgdon finds one of her towns weighing a separation from the other.
"I went for the two extremes," said Hodgdon, who moved to the New Hampshire school system in July after two years as superintendent of School Union 44, which serves Litchfield, Sabattus and Wales.
As Maine continues with its push to lower the number of school districts in the state, New Hampshire is trending in the opposite direction.
By July 1 of next year, the Maine Department of Education is hoping the state will be down to 80 school districts from the current count of 290. In New Hampshire, the number of school districts -- or School Administrative Units, as they are known in the Granite State -- is likely to continue inching up.
Since 2000, eight new school administrative units have formed in New Hampshire, largely the result of individual towns deciding to split from multi-town school units. The state now has 85 school administrative units, up from 77 in 2000. Separate school districts, approximately 175 of them mostly drawn upon municipal lines, make up the larger administrative units.
Unlike in Maine, where the mandate for districts to consolidate comes from the state, New Hampshire's school districts have decided to split independently of any state government push.
Since New Hampshire disburses state funding to individual municipal districts, and not to School Administrative Units, the state would not save money from pushing towns to merge into larger school systems, said Sarah Browning, special assistant to New Hampshire's education commissioner.
New Hampshire superintendents and other school officials cite a variety of factors driving some of the state's school administrative units to separate.
In Hodgdon's School Administrative Unit 41, municipal officials in Hollis have formed a task force to consider separating from longtime partner Brookline.
"The largest issue driving that is a community's identity," Hodgdon said. "I think that's very similar to what I experienced with my work on consolidation in Maine."
In New Hampshire, said Theodore Comstock, executive director of the New Hampshire School Boards Association, many communities seek closer control over their local schools. It's the same spirit that has formed the crux of many residents' opposition to school-district consolidation in Maine.
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5323633.html
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Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
