Freeport Families for Education

Tonight [July 28, 2008], after brief comments and no debate, the Freeport School Committee voted to send the RPC proposed consolidation plan to the voters. The vote was:

Crean: YES
Gleason: YES
Leighton: YES
Martling: YES
Parker: YES

Munroe: NO
Morang: NO

Unfortunately, this action has ended the possibility of taking some time before the deadlines are looming to work with our partners to craft a better plan. From this point, the plan will go to the Commissioner for approval, then will be on the ballot vs. a penalty - likely in November.

Needless to say, I am disappointed with this outcome. Despite the fact that many questions and concerns continue to plague this plan, the School Committee has decided that the plan should be put forward - instead of investigating options and/or continuing to negotiate with our partners for more equitable terms.

-pete

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Last Thursday night, the Durham/Freeport/Pownal RPC met with the Freeport School Committee to discuss concerns about the RPC proposed consolidation plan.

Unfortunately, what should have been a productive meeting turned into a relentless browbeating session of the School Committee members who voted NO last time around. The Durham and Pownal RPC contingents made it abundantly clear that they didn’t care that Freeport has concerns with the plan - their stance was take it or leave it.

While I worry about costs and taxes like anyone else, my primary concern is that Freeport Schools continue the improving trend that has begun to attract families back into the system. That said, equitable and sustainable funding is an essential component of a robust school system. All the positive spin means nothing if communities are unwilling to back up the talk with financial commitment. RPC members from other towns would not provide straight answers on things like high school costs and our own school committee Chairman continues to talk about phantom tax savings for Freeport that do not exist. Thursday’s meeting made clear that Durham and Pownal are not willing to consider a consolidation plan in which they would pay their fair share of the costs. Absent a reasonable amount of funding support, the combined system will spiral into decay.

On a positive note, I’d like to extend a sincere Thank You again to our members who voted against sending the current plan to the voters. I think that their skepticism has been validated by the meeting Thursday night. Had the plan gone to a vote, Freeport would have lost what little leverage we have with our partners. Thanks to their leadership, Freeport has options.

• The Ball is in their Court: Pownal and Durham cannot submit a plan without Freeport. Their steadfast refusal to engage in a productive discussion at Thursday night’s workshop was mere bravado. Failure to submit a plan with Freeport subjects them to penalties from the State. While both towns may not want to pay their fair share, they need to come to the table constructively if only to avoid penalties. From the Department of Education: “There is nothing (Gendron) can do until there are three signatures on the plan. This won’t get them out of penalties.”
• Doughnut Hole: If Freeport’s proposed partners remain unwilling to bear their fair share of expenses, Freeport can look to seek an exemption from the law. The Commissioner has established a precedent for granting doughnut hole status to towns that cannot arrive at an equitable cost sharing plan. Freeport’s school district will continue to grow as more Durham students elect to come and as the school system continues to improve - Freeport will shortly exceed the 1200 student minimum size. From the Department of Education’s web site - “SAUs exercising due diligence with respect to consolidation but experiencing rejection by all other surrounding districts to be included in consolidation will not be penalized if their plan documents efforts to consolidate and the plan includes alternative ways of meeting efficiencies. These units must have at least 1,200 students.”
• Alternative Organization Structure (AOS): Freeport could pursue an AOS with one or both of our proposed partners. An AOS would provide a less structured collaboration that could achieve all potential cost efficiencies without surrendering control of Freeport’s schools or pursestrings. The negative comments of the Freeport School Committee Chair regarding an AOS at the Thursday workshop made no sense. The AOS requirements are quite flexible and loosely defined - Again, from the Department of Education - “Exactly how applicants will build an alternative organizational plan is not specified in the new law so creativity will be the order of the day and that creativity must be focused on student opportunity and achievement and the means to efficiently deliver services in a sustainable way.”

The July 8 vote was a turning point. Freeport stood up for itself against the steamroller of the State and the RPC. The Freeport School Committee will likely be asked to vote on the very same plan - unchanged - at yet another hastily scheduled School Committee meeting on Monday. Sending this plan to the voters will simply saddle us with a $300,000 penalty while letting Pownal and Durham off for free when they approve this unfair plan. Does anyone think that Pownal and Durham will negotiate anything once they are free of State penalties?

Let’s hope the school committee members see the wisdom of exploring the options before sending the plan on to Augusta. Let’s ask them to hold out for a fair plan and avoid that penalty. Please e-mail scmembers@coconetme.org - even just to say “Please hold the line and vote NO on the proposed consolidation.” The meeting is at the Town Council Chambers at 7:00PM on Monday, July 28.

Your input makes a difference - Thank you.

Sincerely,
–
-pete
peter m. murray
pete@pmurray.com

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Greetings Families:

First of all, once again, kudos to the three Freeport School Committee members who voted their consciences last Tuesday night. I’m sure it was a very difficult vote for them to take but it was the right thing to do for Freeport - and I believe for all of the towns. They have been strong-armed by the School Committee leadership to change their votes over the past week. Let’s hope they do not cave to the pressures of the “steamroller”. Help them stay strong by emailing your support to scmembers@coconetme.net !

Since the meeting last Tuesday, I’ve been pondering the question that ended the evening - Where do we go from here? I’m sure that the three responsible committee members are under some significant pressure to provide alternatives.

Attached are two different *draft* outlines of possible structures that could work for the three towns. In discussing different thoughts and ideas with other Freeport parents and citizens, these ideas were common threads. Both plans contain an outline of salient plan points and a discussion section at the end which fleshes out the “whys” of the plan structures.

ConsolidationPlanA (attached) outlines a full consolidation between the three towns. Above EPS spending is allocated between the towns on a per pupil basis. While there has been pushback from other towns on this point, it is important to note (as is expressed in the comments) - that no matter how you split up the above EPS amounts, Freeport will always pay a disproportionately high portion of the non-state funded costs. This is guaranteed because EPS, the bulk of the budget, is funded based on required local mils (in other words, by valuation).

There are some important points that are outside the scope of the plan, but have to do with how this kind of plan gets communicated to the public:

* All communities need to agree that educational excellence is the primary goal of this consolidation.
* The plan should be communicated to communities assuming no cost savings of any kind - it would jeopardize the future of educational funding to communicate this plan to the voters showing cost savings that don’t end up materializing in reality.
* The plan should be communicated with estimated costs for the initiatives in the education plan and model them phased in over 3-5 years.
* Capacity will continue to be an issue under this plan, but if everyone is willing to embrace the likelihood of a high-school expansion in their future tax bill - then great!

AlternativePlanA (attached) outlines an alternative plan that keeps the three school systems independent, but establishes a formal structure for cooperation and cost sharing. An important responsibility of this structure is to act in an advisory capacity into governance on issues pertaining to the high school. This plan allows the three towns to show the state cost savings (We should take credit for the cost savings already in place between Pownal and Freeport) and yet not force the towns to abandon their character and local control.

This plan is much easier to explain and understand. It leverages past experience between Freeport and Pownal and allows the towns flexibilities - while maximizing cost saving opportunities.

These two alternatives should be fully examined and understood by the RPC and the towns’ school committees before a final plan is submitted. Either one would resolve many issues causing thoughtful Freeport citizens concern in this consolidation process.

What do YOU think?

Cheers,

pete

Tags: School Consolidation // 2 Comments »

Greetings Families,

Last night, the Freeport School Committee voted not to approve the
Consolidation Plan presented by the RPC. After several hours of
presentation by RPC members and Q&A from the public and school
committee members, the school committee voted 3 - 2 (with one
abstention) to not submit the plan to the state for final approval.
Instead they suggested that a dialog be opened with the commissioner
to explore alternatives.

The School Committee undertook this important decision with the
interest of Freeport students and community in mind. As Chris
Leighton pointed out last night, this is not the path of least
resistance for Freeport. But it is the right path in the face of this
one-size-fits-all law.

Our School Committee members deserve a big Thank You for standing up
last night. Please email them with your thoughts.

Sincerely,

Peter Murray

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Greetings Families,

Last Wednesday night, the Durham / Freeport / Pownal RPC voted to submit their Consolidation Plan to the Commissioner for approval. The plan they are submitting is basically the same one that was roundly criticized at previous public meetings and does not reflect substantive change in response to the public’s input.

• Unfair Cost Sharing: The final result is a cost sharing system that weighs disproportionately on the Freeport taxpayers.  Despite both Durham and Pownal having higher median per-household incomes, Freeport could be paying two times as much per student as the other towns.  If the state continues to reduce funding, Freeport’s per pupil contribution will go up even more dramatically.

• Flawed Assumptions: The plan continues to be based on an assumption of a cost of $4,000 per additional student at the high school - an assumption which is irresponsible and misleading.  Freeport currently spends almost $12,000 per high school student, and Pownal contributes $8,000 per student.  How we will suddenly be able to accommodate the next 200 students for 1/3 of our current costs is a question that the RPC refused to consider, let alone answer.  These are the types of financial gymnastics that are being used to dress up this plan for the public.

• Increased Risk/No Reward : After all the financial difficulties inflicted recently on our schools by shrinking state funding, why would Freeport want to go from a budget with less than 10% state funding to a situation where a third of our budget is dependent on state funding formulas without decreasing our own taxes at all?  If State funding does decrease to Pownal and Durham, Freeport taxpayers will need to step in and pick up the majority of those cuts.

• Overcrowded High School: The students at Freeport High School walk the halls at lunch because they can’t all fit in the cafeteria.  The school currently utilizes a portable classroom to accommodate the needs of the 435 students.  The RPC plan is based on an assumption that Freeport High School can accommodate over 800 students without any additions or improvements.  Will students benefit by increasing the student teacher ratio as high as 20 : 1?

The Freeport School Committee will vote whether or not to send the plan to the Commissioner on July 8th.  While the Chair of the School Committee and the School Committee’s RPC representative continue to push a plan that is bad for Freeport, we can hope that the other members of the School Committee stand up and do the right thing for all of us.  Freeport shouldn’t get bullied by the State or the RPC into voting on a bad plan that will likely raise our taxes and reduce opportunities for our children.  Please email scmembers@coconetme.org to encourage them to have the courage to stand up for Freeport and send this plan back to the RPC.

Sincerely,

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Greetings Families:

As some of you may already know, on Saturday both the Town Council and the School Committee voted to accept the school budget for 2008-2009.  As I described in an email last Friday, the arrangement ended up like this:

• The total town budget (municipal & school) will require a 1.5% milrate increase.
• The schools’ budget, however, does contain additional funding to make it up to the level requested as a “bottom-line” from the school committee - which represents a 5.3% (or so) increase in the schools budget this year.
• The “extra” money for the schools will be made up from (a) increases on certain municipal fees and (b) three more tuitioned students from Pownal and/or Durham.

This arrangement seemed to be acceptable to all “official” parties - even though it ends up being a noticeable cut from what was originally proposed and exposes the schools to some risk if the additional monies do not come in as predicted (e.g. a tuition student decides not to come, or the town “sells” less of the services they raised the fees on).

At this point, the School Committee is asking the public to support this budget at the polls in June.  They feel they have what they need to move the schools forward (Math Curriculum, staffing for big kindergarten class) for this year.  To my mind, if the SC and administration are indicating satisfaction with the current arrangement, it’s hard for the community to ask for something much different at this point.

Cheers,

Peter M. Murray

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Dear Freeport Families:

I attended last night’s workshop on the proposed budget for 2008-09.  It appears we are headed for a budget that will result in cuts to the current school budget levels in favor of moderating taxes.  The Town Council seems inclined to recommend an increase that will only barely pay for the (underestimated) increased cost of heating oil and raises for existing teachers and staff, but nothing more.

In fairness to the Town Council, personnel costs for salaries and benefits did increase dramatically from last year.  However, it is unfortunate that a Kindergarten teacher did not fit into the funding proposed by the Council.  The institution of full-day Kindergarten has helped increase enrollment and draw students and families back from private schools and into the Freeport system.  Hopefully Principal White can work some magic at Morse Street School to stretch her resources to accommodate the growth of the class of 2021 (It makes me feel old just typing that number…).

The biggest problem with the proposed budget is the failure to include resources to fund the institution of the “Everyday Math” unified curriculum across the town.

• Cost - Everyday Math will cost approximately $45,000 in the first year only.  These costs include workbooks for the students and curricular training and materials for the teachers.  While this is a lot of money, spread out over the whole town it works out to less than a gallon of gas or a loaf of bread per Freeport taxpayer.

• Outcomes - Freeport has poor math scores.  Standardized tests aren’t the only way to track student success, but it’s a fact that we test significantly lower than our peers.  Failure to learn math hurts our kids as they try and develop science and technology skills.  Unfortunately, math doesn’t get easier to learn as you get older.  Falling behind early makes for a much steeper climb later on in school.

• Accountability - Everyday Math is a targeted effort reaching across the district to improve performance in methods that can be tracked and verified.  As taxpayers, we can track the value and success of our investments.  If it works, great - if not, we’ll know it and can try a different tack.

• Action - We need to do something to improve our math scores.  The low scores aren’t because of our kids, it’s about their curriculum and its continuity from grade to grade.  I think we need to support the school committee in this small request.  If we don’t change anything, things aren’t going to get better.  This is a focused investment and I would expect that the School Committee would agree to keep us all apprised of the progress our students and teachers are making if we in return agree to show up and support this single increase in our education budget.

The Town Council will meet on Tuesday, May 27 at 7:00PM to discuss the town budget (including schools) one more time before voting.  If you think it’s important to take some small steps to improve our schools, please come to the Town Council meeting that night.  We’ll set up a movie for kids in the hall and ask that the Council handle this early so we can get the kids out of there.

If people don’t show up on Tuesday, I can’t really blame the Council for not funding the request.  While I certainly disagree with the School Committee’s consolidation schemes, I think this is an area were all families can find agreement and where we should support the improvement our schools need in order to give our kids a fair start in the world ahead of them.

Thanks - Hope to see you Tuesday at 7:00

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The Durham/Freeport/Pownal RPC presented their Consolidation Plan last Thursday at the Freeport High School Library.  The meeting was taped for later broadcast - so it should be on channel 4 or 15 at some point (is there somewhere a posted schedule for those replays?).  The RPC had presented the previous night in Pownal and will present again on Tuesday night (March 18) in Durham.

All of these presentations are open to the public, so if you are interested, please consider going to the meeting at Durham Elemenary School on Tuesday, March 18 at 7:00PM

This is a high-level summary of what was presented.  As usual, if folks see oversights or errors, please post them to the email list.  I have abridged what was covered to highlight the substantive points - please feel free to emphasize others if desired.

PLEASE NOTE: In the interest of full disclosure, there are several assertions presented by the RPC (and reported below) that I believe are false and misleading.  Personally, I am firmly against a consolidation as presented by the RPC.  I will try to present an unbiased report below and share my personal thoughts in separate emails.

The presentation was divided into 5 sections and presented via projected slides:

• Schedule & Process
  • Schedule
  • • Final plan due to Commissioner of Education on March 28, 2008
    • Towns vote on consolidation June 10, 2008
    • November, 2008 - RSU Board of Directors elected
    • July 1, 2009 - RSU begins
  • If one (or more) towns reject the plan in June, there is a “recovery” process that involves the Department of Education “helping” the towns to see if the consolidation can be made palatable.  It will then be voted on again.
• Quality of Educational Services Subcommittee
  • The QOE subcommittee reported out that there could be some opportunities presented by consolidation for improving the education of the towns’ children.
  • They subcommittee recommended enhanced programming and additional staff to take advantage of the opportunities presented.
• Governance
  • The law requires that the governance of the RSU be set up in proportion to the voter populations in each town.
  • The Governance subcommittee came up with the following Board structure to govern the RSU:
    • Freeport - 6 board directors - 98 “votes” per director
    • Durham - 3 board directors - 98 “votes” per director
    • Pownal - 2 board directors - 58 “votes” per director
  • The reason Pownal’s directors have 58 votes is because their population, in proportion to the other towns, dictates that they didn’t have sufficient “votes” to have more than one director, but the committee decided that a town should not be represented by only one director to prevent against absence etc.
  • The Governance committee also came up with a budget of $74,275 for “transition costs” - like legal, software consolidation, etc.  This cost will be divided:
    • Freeport - 50% of startup costs
    • Durham - 30% of startup costs
    • Pownal - 20% of startup costs
    • (These proportions may be off - they aren’t written in the presentation)
• Employment and Collective Bargaining
  • This committee was responsible for coming up with the plan to deal with school choice
  • While the details were not part of the handout, essentially choice will be phased out over seven years by the towns that currently have choice.  During that time, however, children will be tuitioned out to both pubilc and private schools and buses will be provided for a portion of that time.
• Finance, Property & Cost Savings
  • Property
    • All Real and Personal Property (that’s buildings (real) and books, computers etc (personal)) will be transferred into the RSU - including all title, etc
    • The property will revert to the municipality once it’s not being used for school purposes.
  • Cost Sharing
    • Costs in excess of state funded and state required contributions (otherwise known as Essential Programs and Services, EPS), will be divided among the towns as follows:
      • Freeport 66%
      • Durham 21.4%
      • Pownal 12.6%
    • These percentages will remain fixed without respect to changes in school enrollment, valuation or any other factors.
    • The RSU board will be able to alter this allocation after 3 years by a 2/3 majority vote.
  • Cost Savings
    • The Finance Committee showed a spreadsheet based on the following assumptions:
      • Durham students are currently tuitioned out at $7700
      • It would cost $4000 to educate those students at the RSU high school (????)
      • Therefore there is a 3700 savings per Durham student brought into the RSU high school
      • The consolidation would result in $100,000 in annual administrative cost savings.
    • The presenter indicated that the savings could be used as tax-relief or for additional programming.
    • The spreadsheet indicated that if those assumptions were true, the consolidated district would save more than $500,000 per year after the 5th year.

The public then responded with many questions and critiques of the plan.  I’ll try to summarize the critiques in a separate email - my hands are tired…

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Greetings Families:

Another Freeport town meeting on School Consolidation has been announced - see below for the details.  It’s my understanding that immediately after this town meeting the School Committee will be convening to vote on sending the consolidation plan ( a.k.a “interim report”) to the Department of Education.  The document being submitted should be available for public review earlier that day as it will be completed the night before at the usual RPC meeting.  Whew!

Please save the date - this is an important one!  We’ll update later on availability of childcare etc.

Community Forum on School Consolidation
Thursday, November 29, 2007
6:30-8:00PM
Freeport Performing Arts Center Holbrook Street

The Freeport School Committee is preparing to file an interim report with
the Department of Education – due December 1st  - on the status of
consolidation planning. At the community forum, the School Committee and
RPC members will share results of
consolidation work to date and offer an opportunity for public comment.

If you cannot attend but would like to submit comments, e-mail
elaine_tomaszewski@coconetme.org

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The Durham/Freeport/Pownal RPC met last Wednesday night @ 7PM. The Freeport RPC delegation met before the meeting at 6:30PM. Several folks from Freeport were present for both meetings.

Freeport RPC delegation meeting:

Bob the state representative was present for the meeting, and the Freeport RPC delegation quizzed him on certain issues:

• School Choice Vouchers - Bob indicated that Freeport insisting on equity with Durham on school choice vouchers would essentially be equivalent to “opting out” of the process. Because the law “protects” choice going into a consolidation, Freeport has no standing to require that Durham surrender this right prior to consolidation. Freeport can request that Durham relinquish school choice, but if they won’t and this becomes a “deal-breaker,” Freeport could incur penalties, etc from the state for non-compliance with the law.
• Options - Bob indicated that there had been a lot of confusion about how much the December 1 submission “locks in” the configuration. He indicated that the latest word from the Department of Education was that the December 1 submission would not necessarily prevent a school district from switching to a different pre-approved consolidation configuration. However, because Freeport does not have any other available pre-approved consolidation configurations, the December 1 deadline effectively locks Freeport in to a Durham/Freeport/Pownal configuration. Durham is in a more flexible position, as they could still technically decide (should Brunswick be open to it) to consolidate with Brunswick.

Durham/Freeport/Pownal meeting:

• The beginning of the meeting covered several questions from the public. Bob had prepared the answers and read them to the group. There was little discussion about the answers or the questions.
• At Rick White’s request, Bob reiterated the state’s position on school vouchers and on the significance of the December 1 deadline (see above).
• Bob presented the proposition that Durham students that exercise choice to attend a different school would be a net benefit to the school system because Durham would pay into the system as if the student was at Freeport High, but the student would be tuitioned out for less than that amount. This would, according to Bob, accrue the difference to the benefit of the RSU. Paul <?> from Pownal pointed out that if these students choose to attend another high school, the majority of the costs of operating the local school won’t be reduced. So the state’s logic doesn’t hold in the real world of fixed costs of running a high school.
• Bob presented the final word from the state on how the RPC recommended plan will be submitted to the state. The RPC will create the plan document which will be submitted to the town school committees. Each committee will vote - not to “approve” the plan - but just to approve submitting the plan to the state. One plan will then be submitted from the RPC group once all town school committees have voted to submit it. Previously the understood process was that each school committee would individually the plan to the state.
  • Governance
    • The governance group took a look at several state-suggested methods for creating a governance/voting structure for the RSU. The board structure that the group examined (but didn’t finally settle on) is as follows:
      • Freeport - 6 seats
      • Durham - 3 seats
      • Pownal - 2 seats
    • This arrangement gives higher representation on the board to Durham and Pownal than proportional to the populations of the respective towns, but it was decided that was appropriate because if Pownal had only one seat, they wouldn’t be represented should that individual not be present at the meeting.
    • Each director would vote effectively in proportion to their town’s population divided by the number of directors for that town. So the town’s voting power is in proportion to the town’s population. The town’s representation (number of bodies) on the board is intended to be roughly proportional to population.
  • Contracts
    • The group spent much of it’s time talking about contract end dates and how the committee would recommend renewing contracts to make all of the teacher, bus, and other contracts unite in the new RSU. The Superintendent from Durham/Lisbon directed the discussion during this period, and there was little debate within the group.
    • There was a lot of discussion around how the busing contracts would be worked out. Freeport owns its buses and doesn’t have any contracts. The other towns contract with a third party for buses and/or drivers.
    • The group touched on the topic of school choice. Rick White indicated that the latest information from Bob had changed his position on this issue. Marg suggested that the issue requires further discussion and should still be open to further debate.
    • The group also touched briefly on cost-sharing algorithms. While the state law is clear that cost sharing for “above EPS costs” must be done on the basis of relative state property valuations, the Department of Education has encouraged RPCs to put together cost sharing plans which work for them, as the law is likely to be softened in the next legislative session. There was some discussion around whether the fact that Freeport has a significant commercial sector meant that Freeport should pay into the RSU at a higher rate per town pupil than other communities.
  • Finance
    • The finance committee met but I was not in the room so cannot report on that committee’s progress. Could someone else who was in the finance subcommittee please write a quick summary?
• The group broke into subcommittees:
• The group came back together for a brief recap from the subcommittees and a 5-minute summary from Nelson Larkins on Freeport’s Town Meeting.

As always - if anyone has any additional points I have missed - or corrections. Please email the mailing list.

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