State is taking control away from local people

Recently, I sat down with Maine Department of Education Commissioner Susan Gendron to discuss her decision to deny SADs 55, 61 and 72 an exemption from school consolidation, based on their low population densities.

In her letters rejecting their proposals for alternate plans, Gendron clearly stated each district failed to meet the minimum 2,500 student enrollment requirement of consolidation and, therefore, should follow her recommendation and combine into a single district.

Prior to the passage of the school consolidation law in the budget, I received a signed, written agreement from Gendron stating a population density of less than 100 people per square mile would justify an exemption from the 1,200 pupil requirement. Gendron agreed to include this definition in the Department of Education’s guide for school administrative districts and accept this justification for an exemption. Indeed, in a look at the department’s Web site, the criteria for receiving an exemption is available, and included on the list is population density.

When I attempted to amend the law to include our agreement prior to its passage in June, I was informed by the Democratic majority that they would not allow an amendment to the bill, but my agreement with the commissioner was acceptable to them and would be honored in the implementation of the consolidation law.

During debate, I repeated in detail on the floor of the Senate the agreed upon 100-person-per-square-mile standard for a density exemption to ensure the agreement between the commissioner and myself was on record. The majority leader of the Senate responded on the record her understanding of the agreement was the same as mine.

It is for those reasons that I was surprised and dismayed to see the commissioner’s letter on Sept. 13 informing SADs 55, 61 and 72 that they did not meet the minimum student enrollment requirement. Each has a density of well under 100 people per square mile. They should have been granted an exemption and had their alternate plans accepted by the commissioner.

Rep. Roberta Muse, R-Fryeburg, Rep. Richard Cebra, R-Naples, Sen. Carol Weston, R-Montville, and I questioned Gendron at a meeting about why she was dishonoring our agreement and ignoring her own guidelines. She claimed she was honoring our written agreement, but that SADs 55, 61 and 72 had failed in other ways.

However, neither her letters to the districts mention these “other ways,” nor does the law or Department of Education’s own guide require any other criterion be met in order to be exempted from consolidation. The law and guide simply states that a school need only meet one criterion for exemption, not multiple criteria.

Based on our meeting with the commissioner, it is clear to me she wants SADs 55, 61 and 72 to combine at all costs into a single school district, and she will ignore her own rules and written commitments to make it happen.

In response to Gendron’s failure to honor her commitments, I proposed a bill for the January session of the Legislature that would put our agreement on the population density exemption into the law; however, this bill was rejected by the Democratic majority in Legislative Council.

I intend to appeal, and hope the council will allow this bill to go forward.

I will continue to fight against consolidation of our rural schools districts just for the sake of consolidating into fewer units. The resulting unit in this area would be huge – think of Parsonsfield and Casco in the same district – and dramatically impact the social fabric of rural Western Maine. The consolidation law is about saving taxpayer money, not about reaching some artificial number of school units.

The consolidation study committees for each district, which included many well-respected businesspeople and representatives of local government, each concluded consolidation would not result in savings, in large part because of the sprawling, sparsely populated nature of the region – the very reason for my agreement with the commissioner.

Local control of education is important. I think the people here in Western Maine will do what is necessary to save on education costs where it makes sense, but the final decision on the benefits of consolidation should be made here, and not in Augusta.

Sen. David Hastings, R-Fryeburg, represents state Senate District 13.