...certain to be noticed by people involved in more complicated district mergers, where constituent towns are divided by demographics and geography. The merger law itself is under attack, and one of the major points of criticism is that it favors the state's more densely settled and affluent areas. The Falmouth example makes that hard to refute.
...the board of directors of SAD 23, which comprises Carmel and Levant, voted unanimously to oppose the consolidation plan. Then last week, the Carmel Board of Selectmen followed suit with their own unanimous vote against the proposal. In early December, the Hermon School Committee cast a unanimous “no confidence” vote in the consolidation plan.
...Perry said if the plan is rejected by those communities she serves, all of the communities will work collaboratively with municipal officials to cut “real costs” through shared services in special education, gifted and talented programs and transportation. Union 60 and SAD 12 already share Perry’s service as superintendent.
...“The penalty is a known entity, a known quantity, and the costs of reorganizing are an unknown quantity and we’ve got a lot of promises that the state is going to be able to help us along, but I don’t see it.”
...whether the creation of the regional school unit is a consolidation or a merger -- Ultimately, he said, the attorney general must make legal determination on which term applies.
...said the group did not want Gendron “to go around and around” about why the town should have a revote on joining the RSU. She said members just want to hear about the legal ramifications of their situation from the state’s perspective.
...“There is so much unknown, and we don’t appear to be able to trust anything the state is telling us,” said Selectman John Bannister, who served on the reorganization committee that drafted the plan. “If we vote ‘yes,’ we’re in for life. If we vote ‘no,’ we could vote again.”
...If we acknowledge that the government is not completely separate from us, an alien entity, but to some extent a projection of our hopes and dreams, than we may have to also acknowledge that we may not be completely well-adjusted!
..."Governor Douglas is suggesting that elected local officials and voters do not know how to make good decisions when it comes to formulating and passing local school budgets," he says. "In these hard economic times, it is easy to scapegoat. ...I predict that the governor will have a tough row to hoe here, because he has alienated the very people who are democratically accountable for delivering a quality educational experience to all children."
