MDIschools.net

East Machias Considering Lawsuit Over School Reorganization Law
By Will Tuell
Downeast Coastal Press,
March 17-23, 2009

East Machias selectmen Kenneth “Bucket” Davis, Dale Richardson and Bob Chase are considering a lawsuit against the Maine Department of Education (DOE) over the state's controversial school reorganization law.

In a phone interview March 13, Davis said that attorney Bryan Dench of the Lewiston-Auburn-based firm Skelton, Taintor & Abbott would be providing selectmen with legal opinion on the specific merits of a such a challenge.

“Bryan assured me that within the next week I would have a written opinion from him,” said Davis in a recent interview. “He told me that he's looking within the next three weeks to get research lined up, and hoping to get it filed in federal court in April.”

While the selectmen are looking at getting the law's penalties repealed, Davis said that Dench was looking into several avenues, and that at some point in the not-too-distant future, other municipalities would be contacted to see if they're willing to mount a legal challenge to the state law.

“I'm going to be forwarding that [legal opinion] to other towns,” said Davis, adding that several municipalities have already informally contacted him and Dench about a possible legal challenge. “Just as soon as I get that [legal opinion] from him I'm going to be right on the phone [with other towns and school districts]. I've got a whole list of towns that I've been told that are possibly talking about a lawsuit. I haven't called them yet, but I haven't called them for the simple reason that I wanted to wait until I got that letter from him.”

Davis said that he would be briefing fellow selectmen at their regular monthly meeting March 16, and that if the town does decide to go the legal route, a contract with Skelton, Taintor & Abbott would have to be signed.

According to a report published in the Portsmouth (New Hampshire) Herald, the town of York is also pursuing a legal remedy to the school reorganization law. Selectmen contend that the law is at odds with the town's charter, and have also sought a legal opinion on the issue.

East Machias voted 99-3 against an alternative organizational structure (AOS) with eleven other area communities during at a municipal referendum held December 9, 2008.