SAD63 SCHOOL BOARD MEETING MONDAY

The first School Board meeting for the new school year will be held this coming Monday night at the Holdbrook Middle School. Meeting will begin at 6:30pm.

Some of the items of business residents of Eddington, Clifton and Holden should be looking for will be the appointment of members to two important committees:

(1) An RSU committee needs to get started working if anyone truly expects the voters to approve consolidation with any other community or communities if the November Referendum fails to rescind consolidation. Remember, the bill the governor signed to defer penalties for districts that haven't consolidated is only for this fiscal year. For SAD63, that amount was $163,000 this year and the amount could go up in future years. Add to that, the state plans to further reduce its contribution to existing school districts by an additional $60 million in 2010-2011.

SAD63 Interim Superintendent Hart has stated his belief that SAD63 will consolidate in this coming year. One has to wonder why Board Chairman Varnum hasn't appointed an RSU committee to be working on a draft plan over the Summer months. Some think Orrington is interested in consolidating with SAD63. Otis has already expressed an interest but they have very few students and would probably have to be bused to the schools in SAD63. Orrington's student base, combined with SAD63's student base would probably meet the required number for a state approval. But there are issues in SAD63 that our voters will probably require to be resolved before any consolidation will be approved. It's time to get going.

(2) A teachers contract negotiation team. It will be interesting to see who Chairman Varnum appoints to this team. Members Anderson, Dorr (from Eddington) and Teisl (from Holden) are all teachers which precludes them from being on the committee, even though members in other unions than the one with which SAD63 will be negotiating. Since Member Fickett (from Clifton) has already expressed his time constraints, it is unlikely he will be available for the committee. That leaves Board Members Ellis and Clark (from Holden and Eddington respectively) who have previous negotiating team experience, Chairman Varnum (from Holden), and new member Mills (from Holden). Since Member Mills has already expressed his desire to be on the RSU team, as has Member Clark, it will be interesting to see how this team is formed.

One thing for sure, some trade-offs need to be the end result in the next contract. If teachers want to have the taxpayers pay for classes toward advanced degrees, which are usually the responsibility of the student, then the teachers need to be prepared to off-set those increased taxpayer costs. More and more employees are paying a higher percentage of medical benefits in the form of co-payments or percentage of employee premium contributions. This should certainly be on the table.

Whoever is appointed, the SAD63 negotiating team needs to remember they are representing the taxpayers of three towns, two of which are not high-income towns and where there are a relatively low percentage of students compared to the overall populations which are trying to live on fixed incomes.