Bremen residents met at the Town Center to discuss the Alternative Organizational Structure Jan. 8 in advance of the Jan. 27 vote on the local school consolidation plan.
Union 74 Superintendent Bob Bouchard discussed the issues surrounding the plan that was organized by the Regional Planning Committee and approved by Dept. of Education Commissioner Susan Gendron in Nov. 2008.
“It will look and feel pretty much like it does right now,” Bouchard said.
The major difference under the AOS, known as The Central Lincoln County School System, would be that the administration would be operated through a central office. The budget covering special education, transportation and school nutrition would be approved district wide and managed through the central office.
The system would include the 11 towns of Bremen, Bristol, Damariscotta, Newcastle, Nobleboro, South Bristol, Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Southport, Edgecomb and Jefferson.
“It all sounds labor intensive,” selectman Pat Ginnaty said, referring to the cost and time it would take to consolidate offices.
Bouchard said only the office of the superintendent would be consolidated. He said the schools and staff would still operate out of the same buildings they do now and local school boards would continue to oversee each school. School boards would work with the central office in the areas of transportation, special education, school curriculum and calendars.
Committee members representing each of the town school boards voted to submit the plan to comply with state requirements and to avoid the loss of education subsidies. Nonconforming school units that do not meet the minimum student population and other factors in the new law will face having to pay penalties.
Plans submitted to the Dept. of Education were supposed to show areas where savings could be met. According to Bouchard, the plan shows no savings in the first year, but a savings of $75,000 in the following year.
Bouchard said many people had asked him what would happen with high school students. He said school choice would be preserved in all of the towns in the AOS with the exception of Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor, which have a regular high school.
The AOS structure requires less consolidation and retains more local control than the state offered Regional School Unit (RSU). Under an RSU, all school administrative functions would consolidate into one central office, whereas 11 separate units would function as they do now under the AOS plan.
According to Regional Planning Committee chair Parker Renelt, discussion over consolidation into an RSU was going nowhere.
“There was no way people were going to give up local control,” he said. “Just think about the way we are now and this is just a bigger union.”
Renelt pointed out the loss of state subsidy would be pivotal in how people may vote. The penalty for not joining the AOS would equate to a loss of 50 percent of state subsidy, he said. He hopes people vote ‘yes’ for the AOS.
If residents don’t join the AOS, schools would have to buy the services of a superintendent. Renelt said the level of service is compromised under such an arrangement.
“We put a lot of hours into putting together this plan,” he added. “The government made this about money, but this is about securing education.”
Ginnaty said the AOS seemed to be an improvement over the original RSU that had been presented. He said the AOS is a way to retain local control over schools and is a major reason why he wasn’t interested in the initial RSU proposal. Jefferson school board member Ellie Day said the original RSU plan was presented too quickly. She said many of the people who were against that plan are proposing to repeal the law.
“We would lose a lot by not voting for this in Jefferson,” Day said, adding that if people in Jefferson vote the plan down, the school could drop to the bottom of a state-funding list for their new school construction project.
She added that if people vote to repeal the law, it would eliminate all the money, time and volunteer hours that was put into developing the AOS.
The plan and interlocal agreement can be viewed online at: www.schoolunion74.org.
