LIVERMORE FALLS – SAD 36 and Winthrop school boards have agreed to share services at the administrative and support levels for the 2005-06 school year. The one-year pilot initiative is expected to yield $130,000 in combined savings, put more dollars in the classroom and save taxpayers of both systems money.
SAD 36 Superintendent Terry Despres of Winthrop, who served as his hometown’s school superintendent for four years before becoming SAD 36 superintendent three years ago, will oversee both school systems, he said Thursday.
Besides the superintendent, the systems would share a transportation director, curriculum, assessment, food service and maintenance planning.
SAD 36 Transportation Director David Brackett is currently serving both school systems, with the districts sharing the cost of his salary, SAD 36 Chairman Denise Rodzen said. The agreement includes a clause for either district to opt out.
The savings to the districts are based on costs per student, Despres said.
Winthrop with 867 students is expected to save about $61,000, and SAD 36 with 1,054 students about $70,000, Despres said. Winthrop has a proposed $9.4 million 2005-06 school budget and SAD 36 has a proposed $8.19 million budget.
The state has asked school districts to look for ways to form collaborative relations, Despres said, to share the expertise in districts and find ways to become more efficient and cut overall operations at the administrative and support levels.
The boards of education in SAD 36, which serves Livermore and Livermore Falls, and Winthrop saw a possibility to divert these savings in order to provide additional funding for classrooms, Despres said.
The primary focus is not sharing one person, he said, but having several people carry the workloads to assist both districts.
The net result of this is a broader base of support at a lower cost per student, he said.
Both systems will be looking for ways to work together to bring more opportunities and courses to the students in each district, Rodzen said.
“The vision is well beyond what we’re starting with,” Despres said.
Both school systems belong to a 16-school-district Western Maine Regional Collaborative, which includes schools of all sizes, with one of the group’s goals to expand curriculum.
The group sees this as a door to other shared relationships, Despres said.
The large group is currently working with a trades organization, which has offered a collaborative partnership to provide apprenticeships plus classroom training for students.
The organization is offering to assist with the cost of the program and to provide professionals to serve as mentors with on-the-job training, Despres said.
“This is not just for Maine,” Rodzen said. “What they learn through their apprenticeships will go across the country.”
The districts perceive this as “highly valuable,” Despres said, because students would receive skills and have the opportunity to develop more skills. Training would be offered for prospective electricians, plumbers, pipefitters and millwrights, among others.
The state is offering potential additional funding to encourage school districts to investigate regional partnerships, Despres said.
One goal of the SAD 36-Winthrop relationships is to ask the state to fund a regional plan for delivery of education.
“Many who have reviewed this, including Department of Education Commissioner Susan Gendron, see this as an exciting potential plan and encourage our development,” Despres said. “The partners see this as an opportunity to develop a plan by having our input as a design agent rather than an external agency prescribing.”
It allows you to design something that fits into this partnership rather than someone else doing it for you, Rodzen said.
“I’m excited,” Despres said. “I think it’s innovative. I think it’s the future of Maine. What it does is protect local control. This is not consolidation. This is collaboration.”
Winthrop School Board Chairman Ellen O’Brien was unavailable for comment Thursday.
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