The Southport Town Hall was standing-room only Monday night as residents convened to discuss how the state's new school consolidation plan would affect Southport. A panel consisting of Southport school committee members, Southport selectmen, School Union 49 Superintendent Eileen King, Representative Bruce MacDonald, and Jim Rier, Department of Education (DOE), provided the audience with an update on the consolidation process relevant to Southport. Throughout the proceedings, citizens repeatedly expressed their displeasure with a state plan that would cost them substantially more tax dollars and significantly reduce local control over education.

After introductions, Bruce White, Southport School Committee, gave an overview of what the school consolidation plan currently entails for Southport. Southport voters will have an opportunity sometime in 2008 to vote on whether or not to consolidate, White explained. Presently, Southport is in the planning process for consolidating into a new district that would include Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Bremen, Bristol, Damariscotta, Edgecomb, Jefferson, Newcastle, Nobleboro, and South Bristol. Since the new law mandates that all communities in the new district must contribute a minimum of 2 mils for education, Southport, which currently meets its education requirement by raising about 0.9 mils, would see its education bill double.

White explained that under the new law all school assets and debts become the property of the new school district. Towns with no debt, like Southport, or well-maintained school facilities are expected to share in the debt and maintenance needs of less fortunate schools in the new district. Nine separate sets of employee contracts will have to be renegotiated and merged into one. If Southport chooses not to consolidate it will lose about $40,000 in state subsidy, pay the 2-mil anyway, and lose access to new building funds. White said that there might also be other unknown and unpredictable penalties in the future. A serious potential consequence of consolidation is that a larger school board may not want to invest in the infrastructure or keep small schools, such as Southport Central School, open.

White said that the school committee had not come before the town earlier because the process has been in a state of flux. Changes in the legislation are also expected this year. White said that he and selectman Gerry Gamage, who both serve on the regional planning committee, have been working in good faith to develop a local consolidation plan that is fair to all.

White noted also that the consolidation legislation exempted districts with three or more high-achieving schools from consolidating. Two schools in Union 49, Boothbay Region and Edgecomb Elementary schools, are rated as high achieving schools by the state. White said, "Southport School constantly scores above the state average. But due to our small enrollment, Southport does not qualify for high achiever status because there are some years where we are not able to generate a score for our school." If Southport had been eligible, Union 49 would be exempt from consolidation.

Gamage reviewed how consolidation would affect taxpayers in Southport. In 2007, 33 percent of Southport tax dollars went to education; the town's tax rate was 3.04 mils. Under the present legislation, 49.5 percent of Southport tax dollars would to go to education; the tax rate would increase to 4.29 mils. Southport taxpayers would be asked to raise about $850,000 additional dollars for education. White explained that it appears now that Southport would be mandated to raise 2 mils for education whether it chooses to consolidate or not. If consolidated, the extra dollars would go to the new regional district; if unconsolidated, the extra dollars would go to Augusta.

Superintendent King outlined the new school validation budget process, which will begin this year. The new budget process includes a secret ballot vote of approval or disapproval for school budgets. This year, the vote will be only Southport voters voting on Southport's school budget. However, next year, the entire district will vote on the entire budget for the regional school unit. An observant audience member asked if registered voters or taxpayers would vote on the budget. When the answer was "only registered voters," he replied, "A good percentage of Southport could not vote although they would be taxed, and a small community away from here… could outvote us . . . We went to war over taxation without representation before."

After some discussion about the petition to repeal the consolidation law, Smith Climo offered, "We have a situation where the state has decided that we are not as clever as we should be…they are going to take our property. We are going to lose control of how our children are educated and we get to pay more. This is a profoundly bad idea." Climo asked Rep. MacDonald to submit legislation to put the law on hold or to repeal it. MacDonald replied that he had proposed four bills to fix some of the consolidation problems, but not to repeal the law. None of his bills, or any other submitted by legislators on consolidation this fall, will be admitted to the next legislative session. MacDonald said that the legislature's Education Committee will hold a special hearing in December to consider consolidation changes.

Rier stated that the DOE will submit a bill to the Education Committee in December that will address the two major financial disincentives for consolidating -- the minimum special education subsidy and the 2 mil minimum. Under the current legislation, when towns with high property values (minimum subsidy receivers) are lumped into districts with towns with low property values, those high value towns drive up property values and reduce state aid. The new RSU that includes Southport has 6 minimum receiver communities; the resulting RSU loses $1.6 million in state subsidy over last year. Rier said DOE will propose a recalculation to restore the minimum subsidy.

Rier acknowledged that the 2-mil minimum "impacts Southport more than anyone else" in the state. He said that DOE will submit a proposal to address the 2-mil problem but that he didn't know what DOE would propose. Rier said that whatever the minimum is, it will apply to all communities whether they consolidate or not. Southport should continue to work with the regional planning committee, and "expect the big money problems will be resolved," he said.

Several audience members asked about privatizing Southport School so as to maintain local control over school property and education. White said that the school committee, selectmen, and superintendent are investigating that option, but are not as yet ready to report on that potential. Other audience members questioned the state's motivation in consolidation and stated that impacts to schools and students weren't being considered. Rier said that the state was trying to deal with "unsustainable" cost increases in education administration. When asked what cost savings could be expected in administration locally from consolidation, King said that she and Union 74 Superintendent Bob Bouchard had considered current staff versus future staff needs in the larger district and don't see any likely savings.

Others questioned the rush to consolidate and the penalizing of districts that already perform well. Nancy Harriman said that Bath and Union 47 took over two years to propose a regionalization plan. "The legislature hasn't done its homework; the DOE hasn't done its homework … People need time and flexibility to make sound decisions. There will be impacts to students and schools because there is not enough time built in to the process." Bill Burnside added, "With so much up in the air, how on earth can we make an informed decision?" Climo noted, "We've got a school committee here that runs things efficiently; penalize the people that don't. In Portland, their school committee had a budget over a million dollars overdrawn, maybe you should focus on them … Don't penalize people who are doing this right. The education level in this region here is as good as anywhere in the state and better than most."

Tom Myette spoke about what he perceived as an intended inequity in the state's plan, "To put in two stipulations; one, the 2 mil -- that changes us from a cost per student to a cost per the value of your house. That's change one which says you're going after Southport. Change two, that you're too small to opt out (as a high achieving school), that says you're going after Southport. To say the objective is to reduce costs per student and you're going to do that fairly, I don't think you'd have much objection. This room would be empty now," he said.

Although MacDonald and Rier referred to the 2-mil minimum fallout as an "unintended consequence" of the legislation, MacDonald acknowledged that some legislators did look specifically at shifting costs to rich coastal towns.

MacDonald said that the legislature, not the DOE, was responsible for the consolidation law. Although the governor and legislature were trying to get a handle on education costs, Mac Donald said, "The train went off the track." The problem could have been better addressed in other ways, he suggested. MacDonald said that the community could count on him to continue to work to resolve the problems associated with the legislation.

Phil Smith responded, "Part of the problem is we don't have a lot of confidence in Augusta. Augusta is a very strange place. People are not paying attention and they are not being honest."

When asked how consolidation was received in other parts of the state, Rier acknowledged that most of rural Maine was "unhappy" with the proposed changes. "There are issues all over, but many are moving forward," he said. White noted that since the new law does not affect most large communities in the state, it is even harder for small communities to be heard on this issue.

Many in the audience wanted to know what they could and should do. MacDonald, White, and Rier recommended that citizens email and write letters to DOE and legislators about their concerns, and attend the Education Committee hearing in December. MacDonald and White recommended that people sign the petition to repeal the consolidation legislation; 55,000 signatures are needed to get the repeal referendum on next November's ballot. Climo noted that even with the changes that DOE envisions, "It's still a bad idea. We don't want to support this thing. Sign the petition."

In the meantime, Southport will continue to work "in good faith" with the regional planning committee, while it pursue its options. Ramona Gaudette spoke for many when she said, "Can you imagine having this town without this school? We have to do everything in our power to save our school."