Alternative Plan To Be Submitted on December 1

The MSAD 11 Board of Directors has approved submitting an Alternative Plan to the State by the December 1 deadline. This plan details how MSAD 11 has done due diligence in exploring Consolidation, and why we are more efficient remaining as we are than we would be by consolidating.

Consolidation Talks End

November 15, 2007
After meeting again with Union 44 Officials, we have determined that there is no longer any mutual interest in the foreseeable future in such a partnership.
The main reason we oppose a merger is the huge financial shift of almost a million dollars from Union 44 taxpayers to MSAD 11 taxpayers. Although the State has promised to submit legislation to ease that tax shift, when we looked into the future of a combined District, it was apparent that this discrepancy could never be fully resolved because Union 44 spending is so much higher than ours when compared to State formulas.

Consolidation Talks Restarted

October 15, 2007
After meeting with DOE officials, MSAD 11 has learned that the State will propose legislation in January that, if passed, may alleviate the financial inequities in proposed School District mergers. As a result of this news, we will begin talking again with Union 44, and possibly other Districts, to see if consolidation makes sense for us.

Augusta Info

Attached is a financial analysis of a merger between SAD 11 and Augusta Schools.

Commissioner Gendron's eMail to MSAD#11

Dear Superintendent/RPC Chair/Facilitator,

Yesterday, the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee agreed to give Commissioner Susan A. Gendron the flexibility to establish new timelines for the submissions of revisions of reorganization and alternative plans. You are no longer required to submit a revision by February 1, 2008. New timelines have been established.

All proposed RSUs anticipating a June 2008 referendum must submit their plans to the Department of Education for final review and Commissioner's approval no later than March 28, 2008. All units not ready to submit a final plan by March 28, 2008 must submit a status/progress report by March 28, 2008. Any plan submitted prior to March 28, 2008 will be reviewed and responded to within 15 days.

Thank you for your efforts to date.

Jennifer G. Pooler [Marker]

Maine Department of Education

23 State House Station

Augusta, ME 04333---23

Phone (207)624-663 Fax (207)624-6700

Consolidation Committee- Report to the Citizens and Board of MSAD 11

Consolidation Committee – Report to the Citizens and Board of MSAD 11 August 29, 2007

Committee Members –
Becky Fles – MSAD 11 Board Member Ted Sparrow – Selectman – Pittston
Pete Coughlan – Planning Board – Randolph Matt Shea – MSAD 11 Board Member Andy MacLean – Mayor of Gardiner Steve Hunnewell – MSAD 11 Board Member
Greg Couture – Selectman - West Gardiner Kathy Paradee – MSAD 11 Board Member

Purpose of the Committtee – The Committee’s task was to explore every possible avenue with any and all potential partners in forming an RSU (Regional School Unit) with MSAD 11, and to make a recommendation to the Board on what to file as a Notice of Intent with the State on August 31, 2007.

History – Informal meetings have taken place, letters and emails sent, and phone calls made over the last several months to gauge the interest level of all surrounding communities in forming an RSU with MSAD 11 in the State’s mandated School Consolidation Law. When all was said and done, only three communities expressed an interest in continued, and more serious, discussions. These were Chelsea/Whitefield, Augusta, and Union 44 (Sabattus, Litchfield, Wales).

Committee Meetings – The Committee worked extremely hard, realizing the very short amount of time available to make such a huge decision. Some of the more important meetings held were as follows: Meeting with Norm Higgins at DOE in Augusta to clarify the law, telephone call with Suzan Beaudoin (Financial Analyst at DOE), attended Board meetings in Augusta and Union 44, held several meetings with our Superintendent and Business Manager, met with Union 44 officials, met with Chelsea/Whitefield Superintendent Frank Boynton, and held a public forum.

Summary of Discussions with other School Units

Chelsea/Whitefield – From an early date, these Towns had a preference to re-form the old Union 51, essentially joining with Windsor, Somerville, Palermo, and possibly Jefferson, Vassalboro, and China. We met informally with Frank Boynton, Superintendent and the Chelsea Board Chair, and then the Committee met again with Frank Boynton to go over the State’s Financial Analysis of a potential merger. At that point, Frank indicated their Boards had already directed him to file a Notice of Intent (NOI) with the above mentioned Towns. But given the uncertainty of what will happen once the State receives all the NOI’s on August 31, we agreed to keep the channels of communication open.

Augusta – Paul Knowles, Dick Rogers, and Steve Hunnewell met informally on June 27 with Connie Brown, Superintendent, Bill Burney, Board Chair, and Darek Grant, Board Member. At that meeting we agreed to submit a request to DOE for a joint Financial Analysis, discussed the impact of unifying our collective bargaining contracts, and possible collaborations outside of consolidating. Paul and Steve met with the same group again on July 25, with their Business Manager also attending that meeting. At those meetings we discussed in broad terms what potential savings we thought could be realized, and went over an initial analysis of community valuations and populations to try to get a rough idea of what a merger would look like. Although savings could result from merging Central Office staff, it was also apparent that merging our bargaining contracts could actually increase costs.

Understandably, Augusta lost interest in continuing discussions when the Financial Analysis came back from DOE, which indicated approximately a $500,000 shift of local tax burden from MSAD 11 taxpayers to the taxpayers of Augusta. Their Board voted on August 22 to submit an Alternative Plan as their NOI, effectively ending our discussions.

Apparently the State is now disputing whether the actual figure is $500,000, which is odd since the State is the one that supplied us with the Financial Analysis. Augusta has been unsuccessful, as of yesterday, in getting anyone at DOE to show them, or even discuss, their analysis.

Union 44 – Paul, Steve, and Dick informally met with Bob English, Union 44 Board member, and Susan Hodgdon, Superintendent, and had cordial discussions and agreed to submit a joint request for a Financial Analysis from the State, and to continue discussions. There was some discussion of Litchfield possibly being interested in splitting from Union 44 and joining with us, but DOE later informed us that was prohibited.

The Financial Analysis came back from DOE, and the Committee met with Union 44 to go over it in detail. Unfortunately, that analysis resulted in approximately a $1,000,000 tax shift from Union 44 taxpayers to MSAD 11 taxpayers. We agreed to continue with our discussions, and envisioned what a new Central Office would look like if we joined together, and determined we would decrease Central Office costs by about 25% (it should be noted that is well short of the State envisioned 50% cut). This decreased our Town’s potential tax increase by $184,000. Then, we even went one step further, and used a lower mill rate, which the State claims may result from all the consolidation savings. Many of us, after years of dealing with DOE and their promises and projections, doubt that will ever materialize, but we did it anyway, and the impact to our taxpayers was still well over $500,000. A phone call was made to Suzan Beaudoin at DOE during this meeting to ask if the town by town share could be altered to make it come out even, and the answer was that the town shares are dictated by law, and cannot be changed.

Recommendations

The Committee met again on August 28 to discuss what to recommend to the Board as far as filing a Notice of Intent in order to meet the August 31 deadline. There were two choices left to us at that point:
1) Forming an RSU with Union 44, or
2) Filing an Alternative Plan to stay as we are and reorganize administrative functions to find the required efficiencies on our own.

We were lucky enough to have three of our Legislators attend this meeting with us, Earl McCormick, Peter Rines, and Steve Hanley. They completely understood the financial roadblocks to consolidation, and indicated it seems to be happening all over the State. They suggested that when they meet in January, that the law might be changed to address the tax shift issue. The Committee, however, was united in not wanting to commit the taxpayers of MSAD 11 to a potentially huge tax increase, which “might” be mitigated based on what laws might possibly change in January.

The Committee has worked very hard, pursued every possibility, and analyzed every possible avenue to go down. The decision the Board makes on this issue is one of the most important they will ever make. The Committee is unanimous in believing that we need to proceed based on facts, the best interest of our children and the best interest of the taxpayers. And we believe this decision should be based on the existing law as written.

The DOE told us in a face to face meeting, that if you submit an NOI to create a merger on August 31, you will be forced to go through to a voter referendum. And if our voters were to reject the merger in that referendum, MSAD 11 would be subject to the severe financial penalties written into the law for “non-conforming” Districts.

It is with some regret, since we have seen the possible savings and benefits that could result from Consolidation, that our Committee voted unanimously Tuesday night to recommend that the MSAD 11 Board file an Alternative Plan, specifically stating that we will work toward collaborations and other efficiencies with any and all Districts in order to save money, but short of forming a new Regional School Unit with anyone. We have done due diligence, and reached this recommendation based on facts that any reasonable person reviewing our proposed Alternative Plan could not dispute.

Union 44 Info

Attached is a spreadsheet showing the financial impact of a merger between SAD 11 and Union 44.
Also attached is a spreadsheet showing what a merged Central Office might look like, and how much it might save.