Resident comments about a lack of transparency and recent commentary in the paper made for a occasionally tense discussion during a meeting of the Johns Bay Coastal Alliance Education Service Center Board on Wednesday, March 25.
As of July 1, Bristol and South Bristol will withdraw from AOS 93 and form a two town education service center, which will allow the two towns to share services.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, several people spoke about what they called a lack of transparency from the board when it came to the formation and finances of the organization.
Bristol resident Jessica Westhaver said the meetings for the education service center have not been interactive.
“I think what has been really hard for people to swallow is that with the AOS … residents had the opportunity to vote on the AOS budget, and we were involved in that,” Westhaver said. “While the school board meetings are public, they are not interactive.”
Westhaver said the change in not getting to vote on the budget for the education service center is not clear to the voters.
“I think the communication with the townspeople and the taxpayers has been lost, their process has been changed without direction as to how or why that happens,” Westhaver said. “I think when people come to school board meetings and ESC meetings, it’s not a dialogue. You hear people’s public comments, but there is no back and forth or conversation, and people don’t feel like they are being heard or valued in their opinions.”
Westhaver also questioned whether the Johns Bay Coastal Alliance could have had a bigger process when it came to the development of the education service center, which would have included more public input and a public vote.
“People feel left in the dark and it leaves a really bad taste in their mouth,” Westhaver said. “The trust isn’t there, and I think that’s the biggest part.”
Sara Mitchell, education service center board member and chair of the South Bristol School Committee, asked Westhaver to speak to her after the meeting to discuss ways the public can be more engaged.
“I do think we need to work on the trust,” Mitchell said.
Angela Farrin, of South Bristol, also questioned whether the board had the authority to decide on whether or not there would be a public vote.
“It appears to me that when making the interlocal agreement, it was up to the board to decide whether the town got a vote or not,” Farrin said. “It says in the interlocal agreement that (the board members) are basically the only ones that have to pass it, but could you, if you wanted to as a board, listed that in the interlocal agreement that the town should vote on it?”
Chair of the education service center board Christian Cotz said he would have to look in the statue to see whether the board had that authority.
“My recollection is that with an ESC, the school board sets the budget because they were trying to move away from the way it was set up in AOS’s when the budget had to be approved by the town for the administrative unit,” Cotz said. “Could we have added another layer of voting to it? I suppose so, that’s not the way it was set up by statute, but I don’t know that we would have been prevented from doing that.”
After listening to the public’s concerns, board member Warren Storch said he agrees with all the opinions and wants to move forward to make the education service center a great thing.
“I find myself agreeing with everybody,” Storch said. “The ESC is not a good idea, it’s a great idea. Let’s make it into a great system of administration.”
In addition to the concerns from the public, Mitchell raised concerns over a recent letter that was published in the March 26 edition of The Lincoln County News from the chair and vice chair of the board, Cotz and Katherine Thompson.
The letter addressed concerns and comments circulating among the public about the formation of the education service center, including information on finances and operational management.
At the beginning of the meeting, South Bristol School Committee Chair Sarah Mitchell requested to add a discussion about the commentary to the new business portion of the meeting.
Mitchell said the Johns Bay Coastal Alliance Board did not read the letter in advance, and that she doesn’t believe Cotz and Thompson followed proper procedure by not discussing the letter with the board beforehand.
“I was surprised last night when I looked at my email and saw the letter that Christian and Katherine wrote, and that was published in the paper today,” Mitchell said. “Even though you did not say this was from the ESC board, by using your roles as chair and vice-chair, it’s kind of implied that we all looked at this and agreed with everything that was in it, or at least got a chance to discuss what it said in here, and that wasn’t the case.”
Mitchell addressed a section of the letter which discussed the salaries for the executive director and superintendent. The letter said that claims regarding a salary of $190,000 each are false, and that the contracted salary for each of those positions are $132,500 annually, which is based on research conducted by the education service center board.
She said the number of $190,000 came from salary and benefits, and although that number is off by around $15,000, she thinks that comparing the $190,000 to the actual contracted cost is misleading.
“I think that by comparing that number to the $132,500 number that we are offering for salary, it’s misleading,” Mitchell said.
According to Mitchell, the letter dismissed the financial concerns the public had and instead served to further the division between the public and the Johns Bay Coastal Alliance board.
“It honestly was a little bit condescending,” Mitchell said. “I think we all are here for the kids and the best interest of the kids, but when you say something like that, you’re kind of pushing aside solid financial concerns about how we’re running the ESC and how taxpayers can help foot that bill. I think it kind of served to kind of continue the divide.”
Storch said he was “shocked” over the commentary and said he was not aware of the letter until he read it during the meeting.
“It’s almost inappropriate to present this to the public because the inference is that we are, as a group, behind this,” Storch said. “If it’s necessary to write a document like this, then it would be necessary to have some kind of consensus about presenting it to the public, so I’m a little disappointed.”
Storch also brought up concerns over a lack of transparency from the education service center board.
“In some ways we are always going to be tainted with the lack of transparency in which this organization has been created,” Storch said. “But this organization has been created with the best of voters and we can do a wonderful job, but you mess around, and when you mess around, it’s very hard to get the stink off.”
The only comment from Cotz and Thompson about the commentary in the paper was from Cotz, who said he didn’t think Storch would have that reaction and said Storch’s comments were “fair enough.”
The next Johns Bay Coastal Alliance Education Service Center meeting will be at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 29 at Bristol Consolidated School.
