School Consolodation - Yarmouth Affected??? (Augusta, Lincoln: taxes, bills, commute)

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by RANGER.101ST

this is what im geting from all the school consolodation..the towns ppl dont want to the state says you have to or we will fine you the fed gov says if you dont we will take funding. fine you?
fed funding? isnt that extortion.your not alowed a vote with out being fined.if you vote yes we wont fine you and we will give you money from the fed gov but if you vote no we will take the fed funding and make you pay a big fine. can some one say MOB

That's all true! Yarmouth said to heck with the fine they'll just pay it. They pretty much told the State and feds what they could do with their funding.

[reloop]

Originally Posted by Maine Writer

The state is supposed to fund 55% but that hasn't yet happened here.

I wish everyone with the right to vote on consolidation were required to fully understand the big picture.

State funding hasn't happened my way either - I don't think it's really happened anywhere despite "the people's" vote has it?

I wish that everyone with the right to vote on consolidation would really take the time to pay attention to what's being asked of them. I can't tell you how many times I attended a RPC meeting, and was, if not the only one in attendance, then one of only a handful. I was much happier with the public information meeting we just had - it was probably the largest attendance (although there surely were many faces missing). I'm sure some with cable access watched from home (but not the most recent one) but of course, it's rather difficult to ask any questions from your living room couch (I say "not this one" because not all of the meetings were at the town office where they are taped).

This is a mess to say the least. I agree there are many ways (quite a few already implemented, but more could be done) to save taxpayer's money at the administrative level. There was a man in attendance last week who had a huge problem with handing the keys to all of the school property to the RPC. He felt it should remain the property of the towns with a lease option to the RPC.
Apparently, the liability insurance (grrrrrrrrrr....) would be cost prohibitive if that were allowed to happen.

There is no "divorce clause" which means that once it goes through, that's it. Everyone involved in the process hopes that a handful of townspeople don't make the decision for everyone else who neglet to vote.

[maja]

Originally Posted by Maineah

That's all true! Yarmouth said to heck with the fine they'll just pay it. They pretty much told the State and feds what they could do with their funding.

Ha! Love it! I'm movin' to Yarmouth!

[maja]

Originally Posted by 7th generation

This is the most current information I can find. If you dig a little deeper, you may find the outcome.
Yarmouth School District - School Consolidation

Thank you SO much for this very informative link. I am wading my way through it and trying to put it all together!

[maja]

Originally Posted by Maine Writer

For new folks, I volunteer on the governance committee and my husband volunteers on the finance committee. This unit runs from Vanceboro in northern Washington County to Eastport, approximately 90 miles away. There are 20 towns in our unit.

I am still chairman but seriously considering not running for a second three-year term. My term is up later this year. The first part of the plan was complete until it was voted down last week. I wish I could ask people for the exact reason(s) they said no. "I don't want to consolidate," isn't good enough. There's still a lot of work to do. We'll see what happens in the next six months.

We haven't started to talk about what schools yet. We're still trying to put together a plan for our unit that people will approve. It could be the best plan possible and people are going to vote it down because they don't want consolidation. Thinking that this isn't going to happen because you don't approve is denial in its purest form. If we keep dragging this out the people who haven't been paying attention aren't going to know what hit them if the state tells them what's going to happen to them.

I was an AFSCME member and union negotiator when I worked for Penobscot County. I don't want any part of the salary portion of consolidating.

It's too soon to say schools will or won't close for certain. We haven't officially discussed that yet. As a school board member I'd like to see consolidation stop at the admin work. If we close schools and start busing kids further away we have to work out those costs. Do we offer an extra curricular bus run or do we tell the kids who live 50 miles away they can't be in the band, play sports, join Year Book, Envirothon, Academic Decathlon or any other activity if their parents can't drive 600 miles a week to make it work. Six hundred miles is not an exaggeration for some of the families in my unit. My daughter has been on two varsity teams this year. We drive at least 240 miles a week. We're grateful when other parents can carpool. If we don't close schools we have to figure out how to find the money to keep them open. The state is supposed to fund 55% but that hasn't yet happened here.

I wish everyone with the right to vote on consolidation were required to fully understand the big picture.

Thank you for all this information. Is there really a possibility that they would consider having kids attend a school FIFTY miles away??? That is unbelievable. Doesn't sound like, "The way life should be" to me!

[7th generation]

Rangley and Bethel are two towns they want to consolidate which are 60 miles apart.
If anyone's traveled Rt.#17 in the winter, you know it is not pleasant and more to the point-dangerous.
All sport activities would be played in Bethel's modern facilities, forcing families from the Rangley region to drive an hour and a half one way, to take their kids to practice.
Band? Most likely Rangley would be the setting for this.
What a joke. Needless to say the teachers in Bethel's district make more than their counterparts in the Lake region, so the union would make an argument that all salaries be equal-only fair.
Yep, step over a dollar to pick up a dime.

[Maine Writer]

Originally Posted by maja

Thank you for all this information. Is there really a possibility that they would consider having kids attend a school FIFTY miles away??? That is unbelievable. Doesn't sound like, "The way life should be" to me!

Absolutely. When high school students in Vanceboro get on the bus at the end of Rt 6, on the Canadian border, they won't get off for almost two hours. Vanceboro's elementary school is scheduled to close at the end of this school year. That's not consolidation related. Their elementary kids will be going to school in Brookton or Topsfield (last I knew). To put this into a little clearer picture, I live only 20 miles from Woodland High school. My daughter gets on the bus at 7 am to get to school before it starts at 8 am. I knew when I moved out here that we would spend a lot of time driving. I wouldn't have chosen a high school 50+ miles away. We have the financial means to make sure our kids have vehicles when they get their licenses so that we can stop driving them. T's vehicle is in the driveway now. I don't think we'd let the girls drive themselves to activities if we lived much further away. The distance the Vanceboro kids will travel on the bus is more than double the distance my daughter travels. Parents aren't choosing to send their children so far away. Their current high school is closer but they'll have to change schools because today's high school is not in tomorrow's unit. 7th referred to they. They didn't ask us what towns should be combined into a unit. They decided without taking common sense into consideration.

[retiredtinbender]

Kids aren't the only ones effected (affected? Never could keep them straight). DW is a teacher and our school will stay open in eh RSU along with Woodland and others. If, for example, Woodland loses a language teacher, being as Shead has 2 one would be told they now will work in Woodland. She'll either have to commute or quit teaching. No if, ands, or buts about it. 45 minutes on a good day. Glad we got a Prius!! I love gov't for the people.

[reloop]

Medway's Board of Selectman and School Commitee have recommended the town vote against it (per BDN today).

[maja]

Originally Posted by reloop

Medway's Board of Selectman and School Commitee have recommended the town vote against it (per BDN today).

So a town has the right to vote this school consolidation down, correct? But can the state overrule this and mandate it to happen? And if a town votes it down, then the town's taxes go up...up...up but the kids don't have to commute 1 -2 hours to school? I'm sure there's more to it than that; but is this it in a "nutshell?" Or am I still not getting this?