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Log inSchool boards group targeting consolidation law
School boards group targeting consolidation law
by Outspoken on Tue Nov 04, 2008 5:02 am
School boards group targeting consolidation law
BY MATTHEW STONE
Staff Writer Morning Sentinel
AUGUSTA -- The association representing Maine's school boards has endorsed an effort that calls for repeal of the state's school district consolidation law.
Maine School Boards Association members passed a resolution at their fall conference Oct. 23-24 backing a coalition's effort to land a repeal question before voters in November 2009. The group's members are also calling for legislators to repeal the consolidation mandate during their winter session, a move that would render the ballot question unnecessary.
The resolution reaffirms the association's support for the repeal effort, which members voiced in the fall of 2007.
This year, members took up the resolution approximately a week after Maine Coalition to Save Schools members had said they submitted more than 61,000 signatures to the state in hopes of forcing the 2009 ballot question.
Meanwhile, voters across the state will weigh in at the ballot box today on tediously crafted local plans for rearranging their local school districts.
"The basic reason, I think, is the frustration on the part of many school boards across the state with the law, the way it was enacted," said Maine School Boards Association Executive Director Dale Douglass. "The conclusion that many of these boards have drawn (is) that savings are not going to be part of the equation for several years, if then."
The state's school district consolidation mandate, passed in June 2007, is an attempt to cut school administrative costs by reducing the number of districts in the state from 290 to 80.
Under the timeline the law designates, residents must approve merger arrangements at the polls by Jan. 30, 2009, and the mergers are then to take effect by July 1, 2009.
Districts required to consolidate, but which fail to, face cuts in state subsidy as penalty.
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5567878.html
BY MATTHEW STONE
Staff Writer Morning Sentinel
AUGUSTA -- The association representing Maine's school boards has endorsed an effort that calls for repeal of the state's school district consolidation law.
Maine School Boards Association members passed a resolution at their fall conference Oct. 23-24 backing a coalition's effort to land a repeal question before voters in November 2009. The group's members are also calling for legislators to repeal the consolidation mandate during their winter session, a move that would render the ballot question unnecessary.
The resolution reaffirms the association's support for the repeal effort, which members voiced in the fall of 2007.
This year, members took up the resolution approximately a week after Maine Coalition to Save Schools members had said they submitted more than 61,000 signatures to the state in hopes of forcing the 2009 ballot question.
Meanwhile, voters across the state will weigh in at the ballot box today on tediously crafted local plans for rearranging their local school districts.
"The basic reason, I think, is the frustration on the part of many school boards across the state with the law, the way it was enacted," said Maine School Boards Association Executive Director Dale Douglass. "The conclusion that many of these boards have drawn (is) that savings are not going to be part of the equation for several years, if then."
The state's school district consolidation mandate, passed in June 2007, is an attempt to cut school administrative costs by reducing the number of districts in the state from 290 to 80.
Under the timeline the law designates, residents must approve merger arrangements at the polls by Jan. 30, 2009, and the mergers are then to take effect by July 1, 2009.
Districts required to consolidate, but which fail to, face cuts in state subsidy as penalty.
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5567878.html
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