The commissioner’s job is helping schools districts re-organize under the law

As communities around the state seek to understand and comply with the many provisions of the School Administrative Reorganization Law, the reorganization management team at the Maine Department of Education and I are working daily to understand and properly apply the law, and give guidance to school units on how to proceed.

While some people think I have broad authority to implement the law and either approve or reject reorganization plans, I am tightly bound to the letter and intent of the reorganization law. My job is not to approve what I like and reject what I dislike, but to apply the law and help all units comply.

The law includes some elements that were intentionally left vague by the Legislature – for example, what issues of geographic isolation or particular demographics allow school units, or groups of school units, to be exempted from the requirement to form regional school units of at least 2,500 students.

The Legislature’s intent was clear – to allow flexibility, but not set parameters so specific they result in automatic exceptions for units not needing them, or automatic rejection of units that might have legitimate reasons to be smaller.

Perhaps more important than these parameters, however, is Section 1451 of the reorganization law, which outlines the Legislature’s policy objectives. They include, among others, providing: equitable opportunity for all students to achieve Maine’s Learning Results; rigorous academic programs; the effective use of public funds; and the efficient use of limited resources, in order to achieve long-term sustainability and predictability in support of public schools.

It is this last objective – long-term sustainability – that is paramount as I review proposals for reorganization. Our current system of 290 school administrative units will not survive to provide the educational opportunities our students deserve. As costs rise and enrollments decline, it will become harder and harder to put the greatest financial resources possible into the classroom.

While state subsidies to local education have grown significantly over the past three years, and will grow another $43.5 million next year, funding increases will flatten in 2009-2010 as education spending comes under state spending limits. Increases will be less than 3 percent, making it harder to spend that money where it’s needed most – on resources for our students and support for teachers in the classroom.

In a recent column (Nov. 11) Sen. David Hastings, R-Fryeburg, made note of an agreement I made to consider population density as grounds for exempting school administrative units from the requirement to have 2,500 students. Sen. Hastings felt I failed to uphold this agreement when I notified SADs 55, 61, and 72 their plans to remain separate are noncompliant with the provisions of the law.

I agreed to the density exception only as one of the many parameters to be considered in determining whether or not to approve a particular reorganization or alternative plan.

No single parameter has been, or will be, the basis upon which I determine a plan to comply with the law. Under the law, I must look at all parameters, as well as other proposed school units in each region, to determine whether plans will lend themselves to long-term sustainability for individual school systems, the region, and the state education system overall.

Communities around the state have done excellent work – under an extremely tight timeline – developing plans for reorganization that will best meet the needs of their students. Representatives of SAD 61 have presented me with new evidence that they are looking at long-term sustainability and at the tough choices (e.g., cuts to administration) they will have to make if they remain alone and direct the greatest resources possible to instructional programs.

I cannot say if their plan will meet the requirements of the law until it is reviewed, but they are asking the right questions and examining the fundamental issues facing their unit in the coming years.

The department of education is working with units around the state to overcome obstacles in developing reorganization plans that create savings locally and statewide and, more important, create educational opportunities for their students that can be sustained over the long run.

Susan A. Gendron is commissioner of the Maine Department of Education.