[Local-Maine-Schools] LD 2323 and the Play by Play

Fri Apr 18 13:53:04 UTC 2008

I will add my thanks to George, Skip and the legislators who worked hard and
passionately for and against this legislation. I was fortunate enough to
have been required to attend an evening meeting in Bucksport (you will
seldom find me characterizing evening meetings that way) last night and so
left Brian and Gail in Augusta and made it to the comfort of my bed at a
more reasonable hour (though I had my laptop in bed with me, watching with
one eye open until The House adjourned). Even so, I doubt I'll reach the
level of lucidity Brian has despite his hard earned fatigue. I will only add
that we have heard from many across the state who, prior to MDI's plan being
rejected by the Commissioner, something she says she did reluctantly and
only because she had no other choice, were planning to use that plan as a
model for their own. With the passage of LD 2323 we are assured that our
original plan can and will be approved. Hopefully that is good news for
those folks.

LD 2323 is certainly not perfect and it leaves lots of needs unaddressed. If
repeal is not realized, hopefully it is an important piece of a bigger
solution to come in the next legislature. It is certainly better than just
the "non-controversial fixes" of LD 1932.

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: local-maine-schools-bounces at mainetalk.org
[mailto:local-maine-schools-bounces at mainetalk.org] On Behalf Of Brian
Hubbell
Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 9:13 AM
To: local-maine-schools at mainetalk.org
Subject: Re: [Local-Maine-Schools] LD 2323 and the Play by Play

Thank you, George and Skip.

Skip and I may differ in our interpretations on the merits of this
legislation.  But, as I know many of you are very interested for
practical reasons, let me try my own quick summary.  The MDI
delegation didn't get to its respective beds until somewhat after 2:00
this morning.  So lucidity this morning may still be bit out of my
reach.

In short, we believe that LD 2323 allows MDI to operate it's schools
essentially as we do now, as we proposed in the reorganization plan we
submitted last November, and as we would have had LD 1932 not been
vetoed.

We have some confidence in that belief as it has been explicitly
confirmed by both our own lawyer, Dick Spencer, and by Commissioner
Gendron.

So in this respect we understand LD 2323 to represent some very
significant movement from the Governor and the Department of Education
toward local needs and, as such, we believe that this should be taken
as a significant accomplishment for those on all sides who have stuck
to the work of negotiation even through the darkest hours.

I understand that there are those who are still very disappointed and
frustrated that the some of the specific pieces of the amended version
of LD 1932 aren't included in 2323.  And it very well may be that more
legislative work remains to be done to ensure that all school
districts in other areas can also meet their particular needs.

But the framework of alternative reorganization structures that LD
2323 allows is, in significant ways, as open-ended in options as local
school districts want to make them, as long as they represent coherent
regional systems with the same core functions that were proposed under
LD 1932..  I hope that others see some advantages in this lack of
Departmental prescription and give this approach a fair test and
challenge on their own.

Also, I want to say that we have local legislators who have worked
hard and with passion on both sides of this bill -- and I think that
is a credit to each of them.  No matter which way they ended up
voting, their constituents should have no doubt that their
representatives agonized valiantly over what the best route was
through this complex and imperfect landscape toward uncertain outcome
and that, in the end, each did what they thought was in the best
interest of their districts.

We have honorable allies of past year who probably will not reach the
same conclusion. But, as Representative MacDonald from Boothbay
observed yesterday, in a prolonged struggle such as this, sometimes
it's hard to recognize when fair solutions have been won under the
hard constraints of circumstance.  From my own view, I think this
represents one of those resolutions.

----------------------------------------
On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 7:57 AM, skipgreenlaw <skipg at hypernet.com> wrote:
> Good morning,
>
>  I concur with your expression of appreciation to Brian Hubbell for his
>  play by play description of the House debate last night , George.
>
>  Unfortunately, I believe that the legislature is poised to enact today
the
>  late night "fix it" to which to refer.  The scariest part is not so much
>  that it will be passed "late at night", but that it will be passed
without
>  the ap-
>  propriate examination by the members of the legislature.  On Wednesday,
one
>  of the most respected members of the education committee was asking Judy
>  Sproule and me for information about the draft that was circulating that
>  day.  Sue Gendron, Commissioner of Education, was holding non-stop
meetings
>  with legislators and others
>  (including Judy and me).  The bill was then being tweaked, as the law was
>  last year, to accomodate wishes of certain legislators.  The bill was
only
>  printed late Wednesday before the Senate voted on it Wednesday night.
Most
>  legislators feel that they are under such pressure to do something before
>  they adjourn so that they can come home and tell their constituents that
>  they did the best they could.  Their best is not good enough.
>
>  Sincerely,
>  Skip Greenlaw
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>  From: "George Crawford" <crawford at prexar.com>
>  To: <local-maine-schools at mainetalk.org>
>  Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 6:58 AM
>  Subject: [Local-Maine-Schools] LD 2323 and the Play by Play
>
>
>  >A big thank you to Brian Hubbell for the play by play in the Legislature
>  >and the battles over LD2323. It keeps us informed of those who can't be
>  >there. I hope the Legislature doesn't pass another late night fix with
>  >looking at the consquences like they did last June!
>  >
>  > George Crawford
>  > Harrington, Maine
>  >
>  >
>  > _______________________________________________
>  > Local-Maine-Schools mailing list
>  > To send a message to the list, write to:
>  > Local-Maine-Schools at mainetalk.org
>  > To unsubscribe or change subscription settings:
>  > http://mainetalk.org/mailman/listinfo/local-maine-schools_mainetalk.org
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > --
>  > No virus found in this incoming message.
>  > Checked by AVG.
>  > Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.23.1/1384 - Release Date:
4/17/2008
>  > 3:47 PM
>
>
> >
>  >
>
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  Local-Maine-Schools mailing list
>  To send a message to the list, write to:
>   Local-Maine-Schools at mainetalk.org
>  To unsubscribe or change subscription settings:
>   http://mainetalk.org/mailman/listinfo/local-maine-schools_mainetalk.org
>
>

_______________________________________________
Local-Maine-Schools mailing list
To send a message to the list, write to:
 Local-Maine-Schools at mainetalk.org
To unsubscribe or change subscription settings:
 http://mainetalk.org/mailman/listinfo/local-maine-schools_mainetalk.org