[Local-Maine-Schools] Fw: Filing of our petition to repeal the school consolidation law

[skipgreenlaw]

Good morning all,

Below is the brief press release which I read yesterday and fowarded to our prees contacts.

Have a great day!!!!!!

Sincerely, 
Skip
----- Original Message ----- 
From: skipgreenlaw 
To: skipgreenlaw 
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2008 6:08 AM
Subject: Filing of our petition to repeal the school consolidation law


Press Release-  Embargoed until 10 AM, Friday, October 17, 2008
Maine Coalition to Save Schools
Contact: Skip Greenlaw
367-2738, 460-1260

Augusta-  Today, we filed our citizen initiated petition to repeal the school consolidation law with 61142 certified signatures, which is 6055 more signatures than the law requires.  552 Maine residents and 57 Maine professional circulators have worked hard for one year to collect these signatures.  However, our effort pales in comparison to that of the members of the regional planning committees who have spent thousands of hours trying to implement the 
school consolidation law.

Our message is quite simple.  The Governor, the Commissioner of Education, and some members of the legislature
told us that school consolidation would save us millions of taxpayer dollars.  Having worked with the law for a year, we now know that there will be no net savings.  In fact, school consolidation will cost local taxpayers millions more in increased property taxes.  In such stressful economic times, why are our elected leaders in Augusta so adamant about imposing a law which costs more than it saves?  This insanity must stop.  The law must be repealed.

I wish to thank several people for the work they have done to make this filing possible.  First, to all the volunteers who have worked so hard and who are committed to protecting the education of our children, we  say a huge "thank you".
I wish to thank Carolee Hallett of Mars Hill, Vice Chair of our organization for her wise counsel.  I wish to thank Judy
Sproule of Trenton, our Treasurer, who has kept the financial records and filed the required state reports.  I wish to thank Lauren Romain of Glenburn who has kept track of all the petitions and accompanying paperwork. Judy and Lauren have spent countless hours reviewing petitions, collectors' certificates, and voter registration cards to ascertain that they comply with the law.  I wish to thank "Bucket" Davis, 1st Selectman of East Machias, who made so many contacts with town officials to raise most of the funds necessary to pay our expenses.

Bryan Dench, a lawyer with the firm of Skelton, Taintor, and Abbott of Auburn has provided us with excellent legal work, advice, and counsel.  Bryan and his former associate, Jennifer Thompson, worked skillfully witht the Attorney
General's office to determine that we would not have to initiate a new petition after the legislature amended the law in April.  We thank Bryan and Jennifer for their superb work.

Dick Dyer, owner of Dyer Associates, Winthrop came to us last December to assist in the collection of signatures
with his cadre of professional circulators.  Although we did not have sufficient signatures to file our petition last January, Dick and his circulators remained true to our cause.  Without their efforts, we would not have sufficient
signatures to file the petition today.  Thank you, Dick.

Finally, we wish to thank Melissa Packard, Director of Elections, for her willingness to answer our questions on many occasions.  Melissa is one of the busiest employees of state government, but she always returned our calls and answered our endless list of questions cheerfully and competently.

We trust that the members of the 124th Maine Legislature will enact our petition and repeal the school consolidation law as soon as possible.
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