Consolidation plan scrapped by SAD 29

SAD 70 heads back to the drawing board
By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    MONTICELLO — After nine months of discussions, plans to consolidate with neighboring SAD 70 have been scrapped by the SAD 29 school board.
    SAD 29 unanimously voted Monday evening to cease its consolidation discussions with little to no discussion at its regular monthly meeting held at Wellington School in Monticello.
    In a prepared statement to the Houlton Pioneer Times Tuesday morning, SAD 29 Chairman Liz Anderson elaborated on the board’s reasons for the vote.
    “SAD 29 has been a willing participant in lengthy discussions [with] SAD 70 concerning the consolidation of our districts as an RSU [Regional School Unit] or a possible Alternative Organizational Structure [AOS]. Our committee and board have reached the conclusion that to pursue this effort any further would not be in the best interest of our school district.
    “We considered potential cost increases to SAD 29 which could negatively impact our ability to meet the needs of our current student body and we concluded that we were not willing to accept that risk. Such increases could have impacted many areas, for example facilities, administration, personnel, and/or unavoidable cost shifts from SAD 70 to SAD 29. We also considered the value of our state approved status as a ‘stand-alone’ SAD/RSU and concluded that we were not willing to risk that status.
    “We therefore concluded that entering into an RSU or AOS contract would not guarantee any educational benefit for SAD 70 students, yet could potentially diminish SAD 29’s ability to meet the educational needs of our own students.”
    The news came as a disappointment to SAD 70 officials Tuesday.
    “It has been a long, hard process and I can’t say that I am not disappointed,” SAD 70 chairman Estela Lane said. “I understand they [SAD 29] went at this quite methodically and I can’t say that we wouldn’t have done the same thing if we were in their position.”
    At Monday night’s SAD 29 meeting, Anderson said consolidation did not appear to be in the best interests of SAD 29.
    “We took our time for a reason, because we appreciated what our neighbors were going through,” Anderson said. “In the end we reached the conclusion that we do not want to pursue this effort further.”
    The lone question asked by a SAD 29 board member was whether the decision was a unanimous one by the committee. Anderson told her fellow board members that it was a unanimous decision by the committee to cease consolidation talks.
    According to Lane and SAD 70 Superintendent Bob McDaniel, the decision to cease negotiation talks was not one made by the full committee, nor did SAD 70 endorse it.
    “[The full] RPC group has not met,” Lane said. “We did not meet and did not vote to stop the talks. They really didn’t need us at all. I believe when they first started this process they [SAD 29] were really interested, but things swerved during the whole process. They have to look out for their district, but it’s disappointing because we are so close. We really are a community. We work and shop in Houlton. It could have been a first step to something much larger that could have benefited all of us.”
    The two districts began exploring the consolidation process back in January at the request of SAD 70. SAD 70 had originally been in talks with SAD 25 (Stacyville, Sherman, Mount Chase and Patten) and CSD 9 (Crystal, Dyer Brook, Island Falls, Merrill, Oakfield and Smyrna) on forming a three-district RSU. However, in December of 2009, SAD 70 pulled out of that consolidation effort when it was suggested that joining with a district five miles away made more sense.
    A Regional Planning Committee, which included members from both school boards as well as members from the public at large, was formed and several months were spent working with an attorney on the consolidation plan.
    When snags arose over how the proposed RSU would be created and how the two districts would distribute the costs, the RPC committee changed gears to explore forming an Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS).
    Those discussions included holding a public meeting Sept. 23 with Marc Gendron, superintendent for the newly formed AOS 99 (Bridgewater, SAD 42 and SAD 20), who offered his expertise on the subject of consolidation.
    Following that meeting, SAD 29’s representatives of the Regionalization Planning Committee caucused and came to the decision that it did not want to pursue further talks.
    McDaniel said his district would now look to SAD 14 (Danforth), who had approached the district a few months ago, about forming an (AOS) between the two districts. McDaniel added he was uncertain if forming an AOS with Danforth would be sufficient to avoid incurring penalties from the state for not reorganizing.
    “I will have to check with the Commissioner of Education,” he said.
    SAD 70 was fined $93,000 by the state in its current budget for failing to comply with the state-mandated consolidation efforts. That fine will go up by 10 percent each year that the district remains out of compliance.
    SAD 70 will discuss its options at its next regular school board meeting, Monday, Oct. 11.