ACTIVITIES IN THE HOOD - AND EARLY RESOLUTIONS

Last Night (Tuesday) was Eddington's Selectmen's meeting and Special Town Meeting. Didn't attend but expect the grant application was approved. This writer attended the Public Hearing on December 1 which provided the necessary information and the grant and conditions seemed reasonable. We'll see if the promises made by the Board re: the March Town meeting and subsequent notifications are made - or if anyone notices/cares.

There is going to be a special meeting of the SAD 63 School Board this week, I believe. Therese Anderson, Vice Chair seems to be the Acting Chair these days because of illness having been experienced by Chairman Varnum.

Seems the telephone hearing with the Commissioner has been put on hold perhaps because of this special Board meeting. One has to wonder if the powers behind the throne want to push through some kind of Settlement via the Mediation process that was started weeks ago (instead of the Commissioner's Hearing? which will boggle the mind if that's the case).

WHY would the taxpayers want to go the Settlement Route (not that we count) - except that a Settlement means WE will be stuck with some kind of bill on top of the expected increased cost of educating the children since the state is planning to decrease it's financial share anyway. If the Commissioner were to rule in favor of the Board, that would take the very heart out of former superintendent Regan's case. So one can logically see why Regan and her legal counsel might be pushing very hard for a settlement at this time. But the Board certainly shouldn't be. Of course, the taxpayers won't get any say in the matter. What else in new? We'll just get stuck with the bill - and maybe with having to rehire Regan in some capacity since that is what Interim Superintendent Hart freely suggested during the teachers workshops a few weeks ago - saying she might very well be coming back as the superintendent or in some other capacity....! (Was that past of what she and her legal counsel said they wanted as part of the settlement in the mediation session?) Maybe she just needs more years to obtain her state retirement and it's unlikely with all that's been written in the local newspapers she'd be able to obtain employment outside of SAD 63 (or the whatever RSU the area will become). Just makes sense if anyone wants to think the matter through. Not that there's a lot of that going on around here lately. What a boondoggle this whole mess has turned out to be. And should we look at who might be behind the orchestration? Don't expect his residence is in Eddington, Clifton or Holden.

Interesting thought: What if the voters, who will have to approve any loan or financial arrangement associated with the settlement, vote NO. Does anyone suppose the settlement will have to be therefore paid out of the personal checkbooks and savings accounts of the members of the School Board? Now that would be true justice!

With all of the success the Board's legal counsel has had to date, (and if the Board members would actually READ the documents that have been produced...) it would be irresponsible to go into a costly settlement or rehire instead of having the Commissioner hear the case. Of course, getting the Board members to read the documents - all of them - is far too much to expect for at least half of them. Why they ran for their positions is another question - but someone else will have to ask that one in more depth than I care to go in to.

BUT - since not one single new person has bothered to attend the School Board meetings since this blog has started tracking and reporting the "behavior" of the SAD 63 Board, and not one single parent from Eddington or Clifton (and only one from Holden) is the least bit concerned, and only the Clifton Selectmen and the town manager and one Selectman at a time from Eddington shows up (and only after a fire is lit and then doused and then when "ordered") - it is apparent that monitoring any governing body that raises the taxes and feels no accountability for how those taxes are spent - is a waste of my time and energy.

So I'm not going to do it any more. I, too, can sit at home in my easy chair, read a book or watch TV and be comfortable and not give a tinker's toot. It is apparent that there isn't a single capable manager or leader on the School Board. In all the Budget & Finance Committee meetings I've attended, I've not heard a single question raised as to why monies were spent or why they were spent in one area and not another (other than in Holden which seems to get carte blanche) even when it has been known since October that the state was not going to meet it's fiscal portion. The Board doesn't "manage" anything and there is more that goes on behind the scenes than is transparent.

The answers to the questions that were submitted the first of October re: the 2007-2008 Audit were supposedly prepared but have not been given to the group of five who prepared and submitted them, even though three of the individuals were at the November 30 Board meeting. Mr. Hart's position is that no group of citizens have any right to ask questions of information in the audit, even though the audit is a public document and the money spent to fund the school district comes from the public. Apparently the public/taxpayers are simply to be considered an Open Checkbook at the mercy of the School Board and the various Board of Selectmen.

And every citizen in these three towns apparently feels the same because no one attends any meetings or asks any questions or expects any accountability of these Boards. Welcome to small town Maine democracy. And who cares? Not me any longer.