[Local-Maine-Schools] Reorganization Law Update

Sat Jan 23 01:49:58 UTC 2010

Greetings All:  Please find the two attached documents and e-mail below from
Dustin Brooks, Preti Flaherty's Government Relations Liasson following  the
e-mail below from Skip Greenlaw.  My apologies for duplicity in advance, if
you have received this more than once however, time is short and the hour
late.    Have a  good weekend.   Mark

From: skip greenlaw [mailto:skipg at midmaine.com] 
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2010 6:45 PM
To: skipgreenlaw
Subject: Education Committee hearings

Good evening everyone,

It is nice to be communicating with you all.

Many of you probably already know that the legislative Education Committee
is considering several bills for amending the school district consolidation
law, which will hopefully be consolidated (no pun intended) into one bill.

LD 1732, An Act to Allow a Municipality To Withdraw from a Regional School
Unit will be presented by Rep. Lisa Miller of Somerville (near Augusta)
before the Education Committee on Monday, January 25 at 1 PM in the Cross
State office Building in Augusta.  This proposal is based on the withdrawal
procedure in the old SAD law. 

LD !735, An Act to Waive Certain Penalties Imposed against School
Administrative Units if the State Has Not Fulfilled Its Goal of Paying 55%
of Costs will be presented by Rep. Peggy Rotundo of Lewiston.  This bill
essentially waives the penalty until the State of Maine pays 55% of the
aggregate cost of education in Maine.  Although I'd rather have the penalty
repealed permanently, it will be a long, long time (if ever) before the
State funds 55% of the cost of education.  This bill will be heard on
Tuesday, January 26 at 2 PM before the Education Committee in the Cross
Building.

Works sessions (where the committee debates and voted on the bill-  either
approve or disapprove will be for LD 1732 on Thursday, January 28 at 3:00 PM
and on LD 1735 on Friday, January 29 at 9 AM .

I urge any of you who can testify on either of these bills to do so.  All
the input we can get from different areas of the state will be very helpful.
Believe it or not the I think that some meaningful amendments will be
enacted.

Please stay in touch as I shall do the same as these bills wind their way
through the process.

Best wishes,

Skip

From: Brooks, Dustin D. [mailto:DBrooks at preti.com] 
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2010 4:17 PM
To: Mark Robinson
Cc: Dick Gould; skip greenlaw; Roger S. Shaw; Walker, Daniel W.
Subject: Reorganization Law Improvement Initiative Update

FOR DISTRIBUTION TO INTERESTED PARTIES

The Education Committee will begin its hearings of the bills we're
particularly interested in on Monday, January 25.  The committee will spend
much of next week discussing these issues.  

On Sunday evening, we will be sending the committee, via e-mail, a letter
outlining our overall requests for changes in this session.  We will also
provide a hard copy for them in the committee room on Monday morning.
Subsequent to that, we will testify on the bills we are particularly
interested in and submit language as needed.

The schedule is as follows for the two bills that address two of our goals
(LD 1732 - Opt Out and LD 1735 - Penalty Repeal).  It is not yet clear which
bill will be the "committee bill" in which we hope to put the remainder of
our issues - it may well be a new piece of legislation entirely, or one of
the carry over bills. Please note, it is likely that the concepts in these
two bills could be combined (ideally, with some of our other requests) into
a single, omnibus bill by the committee.

Schedule for the Week of January 25 

Monday, January 25, 1:00pm - LD 1732 (Opt Out) Public Hearing 
Tuesday, January 26, 2:00pm - LD 1735 (Penalty Repeal) Public Hearing 
Thursday, January 28, 3:00pm - LD 1732 (Opt Out) Work Session 
Friday, January 29, 9:00am - LD 1735 (Penalty Repeal) Work Session 

Copies of each piece of legislation are attached.  We will be testifying in
support of LD 1732 and in support of an amended version of LD 1735 that
would not dictate a certain amount of local share of funding in order to
have penalties waived.

We'll send around a copy of our letter and testimony on Sunday in advance of
the first hearing on Monday. 

Let us know if you have any questions or comments, 
Dustin 

Please feel free to contact Dustin Brooks at 623-5300 or by e-mail
DBrooks at preti.com for more information.

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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