School leaders in Poland, Minot and Mechanic Falls to meet this week

POLAND – A plan to merge Poland, Minot and Mechanic Falls under a single school system would also consolidate each town’s school-related debt, totaling more than $2 million.

The consolidation measure will be introduced to school committees in each of the three towns of Union 29 this week. And if they pass it, public hearings and a Nov. 4 vote will follow.

“I hope people take the time to understand it,” said John Hawley, Mechanic Falls’ town manager and part of the 23-member group who authored the plan. Taxpayers in all three towns will be protected, he insisted.

“The inequities have been taken care of,” Hawley said.

The plan calls for each of the three towns to have five seats on the consolidated district. And for the first five years, each town’s portion of the school budget and the debt would be based mostly on the total property values, rather than how many kids the town sends.

After that, the combined school board would decide how to proceed.

It’s a plan that Hawley is proud to support, he said.

However, when the 23-member group began meeting nearly nine weeks ago, he figured it would dissolve into petty politics.

“I thought, ‘There is absolutely no way,'” Hawley said. The group was too big and the towns – though unified by a loose school union – were too different.

Within the group, Poland is seen as the big town with lots of high-value property and the biggest population. It also had the greatest debt.

About $11 million is owed on the construction of Poland Regional High School, which opened in 1999. However, most of that money will paid by the state. Currently, Poland’s biggest debt is about $1.15 million owed on the addition to Poland Community School.

By comparison, Minot has virtually no debt. Mechanic Falls sits in the middle with about $480,000 owed on the addition to the Elm Street School, the town’s only school.

“For us, it’ll be a good thing in the long run,” Hawley said about the plan to consolidate debt. Though Mechanic Falls residents will be on the hook for some of Poland’s debt, Mechanic Falls’ debt will be added to the mix, and the Elm Street School remains a fixer-upper.

“We’d probably have to make some changes in the next few years there,” he said. The school was recently forced to replace its underground fuel tanks. The work cost more than $38,000.

The Sun Journal was unsuccessful in reaching Minot’s members of the plan committee.

However, Minot might also see dividends in new programs or eventually, physical changes at its school, suggested David Griffiths, a plan committee member from Mechanic Falls.

There is a chance to share specialized staff in new ways, Griffiths said. Minot currently has no music program for its children.

The plan includes redrawing bus routes among all three towns and, eventually, consolidating the busing of all of the towns’ children.

Anticipated savings would follow efforts already begun in the school union to save money.

Union Superintendent Dennis Duquette has led the elimination of several jobs through attrition. He has also vowed that in the first year of a consolidated district, the portion of the school budget to be raised by taxes would not increase.

Poland Town Manager Dana Lee, another member of the planning group, said he hopes people in all three towns will eagerly sign on.

They would have been proud of the way the group came together on the plan, checking egos and parochial arguments at the door, he said.

“This whole effort was, potentially, a mine field,” Lee said. “Everybody met in good faith and there was a strong feeling of give and take. I truly believe that nobody is hurt financially here.”

Penalties for inaction could be harsh, warned Lee, Hawley and Griffiths.

The plan is part of the statewide consolidation effort to force schools to work together more and find savings. Towns that opt out could lose millions in subsidies.

“We all had the same interest in the end,” Hawley said.