The state’s proposed plan reduces the number of board members.
By Jim Smedley
Staff Writer

OXFORD – Superintendent Mark Eastman told SAD 17 board members Monday that the state is calling for reapportionment of the board.

He said as the board suspected a year ago, realignment according to the state law “one-man, one-vote” policy would be necessary.

The policy committee drafted a letter about a year ago to the Maine Department of Education inquiring about reapportionment.

Recently appointed state education Commissioner Susan A. Gendron replied, saying that based on the most recent census reapportionment was necessary. A proposed realignment was also enclosed.

“It was expected,” Eastman said.

The letter instructed Eastman that a reapportionment committee be comprised of one municipal officer and one citizen at large from each of the eight towns of SAD 17. Eastman has to notify the town officials, and the first meeting of the committee must be held within 20 days of the notification.

The committee must create a new plan within 90 days of the first meeting.

After receipt of the plan, Gendron has 30 days to accept it.

Currently, the lesser populated towns in SAD 17, Harrison, Hebron, Otisfield, Waterford and West Paris have two members each on the board.

Norway, Oxford and Paris each have four representatives on the board.

The votes of each board member is weighted according to population.

The DOE plan reduces the number of directors to a total of 15 and readjusts the weight of each vote.

“My suspicion is that the board of directors and ad hoc committee will come up with a plan that represents one-man, one-vote, but yet keeps a minimum of two representatives from each town,” Eastman said. “But, I don’t want to assume what they are going to do.”

Eastman also shared what he called good news from the DOE concerning the proposed elementary school in Paris.

Gendron sent him a letter saying the State Board of Education Construction Committee was satisfied that planning for the school should proceed and that site approval for that school would be reviewed by that committee in the near future.

Eastman said there was concern that state financial concerns and the governor’s push for regionalization might force the district to build a combined elementary school for Paris and West Paris.

The board has submitted a request that a new school be built in West Paris in the future.

“Basically they agreed at this point that we could build a school for Paris,” Eastman said.

However, the approval for the Paris school does not automatically mean a new school will also later be constructed in West Paris.

Gendron explained that the DOE is examining regional approaches to education.

“I want to be sure that you and your board realize that approvals for this school cannot be considered as setting a precedent to apply to other schools including the West Paris school for which an application has previously been submitted,” Gendron said.

She noted that the Paris school should be designed so that future expansion of the building “can be accomplished with a minimum of cost and disruption.”

Also at the board meeting, Dale Piirainen of West Paris was elected chairman, replacing Ron Kugell of Oxford. Kugell was elected vice chairman.

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