School board chair clarifies Monticello vote statement
To the editor:
In my letter last week I wrote you about the SAD 29 school budget and the Town Budget Meeting held last Thursday. I want to thank everyone that showed up to participate in that meeting and want to remind everyone to get out and vote on Wednesday, August 27 – mark your calendars now!
As a reminder, this budget is at the state’s mandated minimum local required funding level and .57 percent higher than last year. To get to this point, over $800,000 was removed from the budget and while those in attendance considered both increases and decreases to the budget, it ultimately passed as originally presented.
At Thursday’s meeting many questions were asked about the budget and the state-financing model. If you still have questions, we encourage you to contact us so we can answer your questions and explain why this is the right budget for the District and our plans for students. Feel free to call the Superintendent’s office at 532-6555 or reach out to any board member. You can also find a copy of the budget online at RSU29.org.
I would also like to take a moment to clarify something that I wrote about last week. In my letter, I mentioned that the town of Monticello voted to close Wellington and, in fact, I should have been clearer with that statement. The burden to close a school lies squarely on the shoulders of the School Board. Once a school board makes a decision to close a school, the community where the school is located has the opportunity to decide if they would like to keep the school open and incur the expense to do so. The vote Monticello had was just that and while many in Monticello voted to keep it open and incur the additional expense, that question failed to pass.
Once again, thanks for your participation, dedication to students and please remember to get out and vote on August 27.
Fred Grant, chairman
SAD 29 School Board
Monticello voters have final say
To the editor:
Thomas Jefferson said, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” We have all dropped the ball.
It is not a little thing when you disenfranchise a whole community with your comments. This is especially true when you are in a position of authority. It is even more true when those actions have dire financial and social repercussions to that community.
We appreciate the honesty of the chairman of the RSU 29 School Board and his apology to the voters of Monticello; but, that doesn’t rectify the damage done. We have to live with the consequences of those remarks and the impressions those remarks have left on those who believe them throughout the district.
It would be so nice to actually listen to each other and put ourselves in each other’s shoes. We will continue to believe that people of good faith will work towards what is best for our communities.
Knowing this letter will alienate some, we still feel the need to not let this issue go. Too many parents/voters in Monticello stayed home and didn’t attend the budget meeting on August 14 due to these comments. Too many students will be affected.
At this point in time, we vow to step back and let the voters speak. We pass the torch to the parents and voters of our community. We still are extremely lucky to live in a democracy. Go out and vote on August 27 and decide what you think is right for our community.
Laurice Grass-Bell
Barbara Brown
Ronnie Flewelling
Say ‘No’ to Mr. Grant and SAD 29
To the editor:
“No.” It is the worst word that parents, those in authority, hate to hear from you. It’s OK for them to use it on you though. It is one of the very first words you learn to say and learn to spell, and just as parents and those in authority know the power of “No,” so don’t you. “No” it is a beautiful word — say it with a Boston accent.
Mr. Grant and his group have tried innumerable ways to convince you that you have to vote their way; that voting the other way, just is not fair to the school. In fact Mr. Grant has implied to you, the voter, that the “No’s” just are not a fair representation of the eligible voting public.
What happens at a School Board meeting, budget or otherwise? They meet in the huge auditorium, when another room would be just as adequate. That’s right, in that room, the general public would be able to sit at home and watch on TV the events at the meeting. But by avoiding that opportunity, for all of those ridiculous reasons, they don’t want you to choose where you can be comfortable, after that long hard day at work. Let’s not forget the money you make at work gives them the money for their budget. Whether the folks at home call it “the fights,” laugh themselves out of the chair, or take it seriously, it is for us, the voters, to make that choice, not the school board looking for “controlled perfection.”
Raised hand voting is another manipulation by school boards across Maine. Why not secret ballot? Might it be, that then they don’t know who voted how, so later they can intimidate, scowl, not pick your kid for some event?
Then, there is the tactic to keep bringing back the budget, until they wear you out — about 8-10 years ago, one school system had five votes. They refused to change the amount and blamed the “No” voters for the expense. Don’t they have blame?
You exercise your right, then you’re blamed for doing so, because it did not meet with the School Board’s wishes (demands). Maybe, we should have the law changed, that when a budget of any kind fails, it can not be brought back unless it has a meaningful reduction from the last vote. They then can only operate either upon the last budget that passed that they were operating under, or the one failing with its reductions. That might show school directors a thing or too. If it fails three times, they have to eat the reduction mandated. I thought it was very chichi of Mr. Grant to rub it into your face, that they misread the law, realized they were not operating under the prior budget but rather under the new failed budget, kind of like “there in your face people of the ‘No.’”
In articles in the paper supporting the budget for SAD 29, never once did I hear Mr. Grant knock the voters (so few that they were) — School Board members, town officials, administration and teachers as well as former administrators and teachers and their family members — who voted for the budget at the budget meetings, but he rags on you the “No” group which so far has held SAD 29 at bay and so you should. Who does he think he is, when he puts you down even if by one vote he loses, but if his group won, by one vote, with a very small number of voters, he would break out the champagne, saying the vote was close but the voters spoke. No bubbly, so far, for you Mr. Grant.
Mr. Grant wants you to think that you can affect change by attending the meeting but with the above type attendance (you always hear the rumors if teachers don’t come it reflects badly on them and maybe their jobs) the deck is stacked against you, and from the comments by the administration and school board after inviting you to attend with hope of fairness, they declare there are things that they will not change. Hope is dashed before the ink is dry, the last vibrations of the spoken word disappearing.
What they really aren’t talking about, perhaps, is the increased $423K of which we have to put up $84K. We could still get almost half of that increase — $170K — for just $423. Why then, are we paying our own way, being responsible, and not taking handouts of other folks’ tax dollars from around the state, something, we always say, we don’t want our money going elsewhere.
Mr. Grant, you need to do more for the taxpayer with less money, offer secret ballots on voting, don’t stack the deck at meetings, stop saying we can not cut any farther, don’t negotiate any pay raises for a few years, and make employees pay more for their health care. Oh yes, and have your meetings in the room that is cable ready. With open and honest meetings maybe you can get some trust back. Maybe the “No’s” could become “Yes’s,” if the budget process is honestly and fairly done.
Stan Ginish
Houlton
Social Security marks 79th year
To the editor:
Aug. 14 marked the 79th anniversary of Social Security. When it was first signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935, nearly half of all older Americans were living in poverty. Today, the program keeps 109,000 Mainers from falling into poverty and more than one third of those that receive Social Security benefits rely on it for their sole source of income.
AARP recently released a survey in which registered voters in Maine age 50 and older identified the issues most important to them. Over half said that they worry about not having Social Security available to them in the future. Many of these people have paid into Social Security for years now and deserve the security of knowing they will receive their benefits.
Hopefully elected officials already in office and those running for office this November will honor Social Security’s anniversary by ensuring the program will continue to be around for all Mainers as we age. What better way to celebrate the creation of a program that has helped millions throughout the past 79 years than to make sure it continues to help people for many more years to come?
Jackie Katz, volunteer
AARP Maine Executive Council
Brunswick
