[Local-Maine-Schools] FW: Reorganization Law Update

[Dick Atlee]

The following was addressed to the list (and a large number of other 
people who might or might not want their email addresses sent to the 
list)...

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Subject: FW: Reorganization Law Update
From: "Mark Robinson" <fayetttm at localnet.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:45:53 -0500

All the best.   Mark

Mark Robinson, Town Manager
Town of Fayette
2589 Main Street
Fayette, Maine 04349
phone (207) 685-4373
facsimile (207) 685-9391
e-mail: markrobinson at fayettemaine.com
web site: www.fayettemaine.com

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From: Brooks, Dustin D.
Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 2:30 PM
Subject: Reorganization Law Update

We wanted to get around a full, pre-holiday update to you all on our 
legislative and executive branch efforts.  Please feel free to forward 
this to all involved parties for their information.

Earlier this month, Mark Robinson, Dick Gould and Dan Walker met with 
Commissioner Gendron and delivered a letter to her that outlined our 
requests.  I attach a copy of the letter for your information.  She was 
very willing to discuss the issues with our delegation and they had a 
good conversation about the issue.  She did say, though, that the 
department would not be putting a bill forward on this matter.  She did 
commit to discussing our requests with the governor and said she would 
contact us with a follow up.  We have not yet heard from her, and Dan is 
checking in with her office.

It should be noted that during their conversation, she expressed a real 
interest in specifics as to what alternative methods might be used to 
show savings.  We had begun compiling a list of case studies and will 
continue to do so.

In the meantime, much has happened on the legislative front as well. 
Last week, the Legislative Council approved several bills related to 
school district reorganization for consideration in the upcoming Second 
Regular session.  We'll keep an eye on all of them, but we are 
particularly interested in two that align well with some of our goals. 
1.) Representative Lisa Miller of Somerville has sponsored a bill 
creating an opt out provision, and 2.) Representative Peggy Rotundo of 
Lewiston has sponsored a bill preventing collection of penalties until 
the state achieves its 55% funding requirement.  Both representatives 
are Democratic members of the Appropriations Committee and strong 
advocates for these issues.

There also remains the concept draft carried over from last session 
sponsored by Representative Edward Finch of Fairfield, a Democratic 
member of the Education Committee.  We are attempting to get copies of 
the language of the Miller and Rotundo bills for our review, but it is 
clear that we will have sufficient vehicles for our work legislatively.

We have also been monitoring the issues related to special education, 
charter schools and the GPA reduction in the supplemental budget to 
determine their impact on our initiative.  It is clear that there will 
be a compelling argument for removing the penalties, and also for the 
creative paths to savings that we intend to offer given the substantial 
pressures that all schools in Maine will be under.

We will be making contact with the commissioner early next week to 
follow up on our meeting and will prepare initial drafts of the 
legislative language to propose to the Education Committee when it 
begins consideration of these bills.  Once we have initial drafts, we 
will send them around for consideration and comments.  In the meantime, 
please send any specific ideas relative to demonstrable savings 
initiatives that you might provide.

Expect an additional update related to the commissioner's response and 
some draft language for your review early next week.  In addition to the 
letter to the commissioner,  I attach an engagement agreement for those 
who may need it.

Happy Holidays,

Dustin
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Dustin D Brooks
Government Relations Liaison

PretiFlaherty
45 Memorial Circle
PO Box 1058
Augusta, ME 04332-1058
207.623.5300
dbrooks at preti.com
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