Regional Education Task Force

Transition Team Meeting

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Superintendent’s Conference Room – Huse School – Bath, Maine




Members Present: Co-Chairs Chet Garrison & David Barber, Mark Westrum, Jean Flink, Darla Jewett, Tom MacDonald, David Miller, Julie Rice, William Shuttleworth,


Members Absent: Kristin Malin, Bill Haggett, Eloise Vitelli, Ross Berkowitz


Others Present: David Longstreet, Tim Harkins, Susan Correntes, Don Cowing



  1. Call to Order – Meeting called to order at 5:23pm by Chairman Garrison



  1. Opening Remarks

Opening remarks – Co-Chairs Garrison & Barber attended a PTO meeting last evening. The interesting piece of the meeting was the attendee’s thirst for information. This will be taken up during new business.



  1. Adjustments to the Agenda


Added 4.7 - Recommendation of Sub-Committee for Revisions to the Bath City Charter



  1. New Business:


    1. Ground Rules – Not discussed


    1. Bill Gerioux – Bath City Manager


What is the impact of regionalization? Would you need to change the Bath City Charter? Not at first, nor would the expenditure cap. The expectation is that the city will actually save money in year one, nor would there be EPS problems initially. After a few years it would be likely that the EPS & spending cap would be an issue. If the cap did need to be removed or changed the city would have to vote to approve. This is not a deal breaker, if I were in this group I would be looking at getting the spending cap removed. This would involve convincing the City Council and the voters that this would be the right thing to do. When would this need to be addressed for this fall? It would need to be decided by the council in August, so the Task Force would need to be ready in July. Roger Therriault, esq. would be a good resource to craft such a change. Only the school issue would be enough to convince the council to remove the spending cap. If the citizens of Bath pass the bond to repair the schools would the council be less likely to remove the cap? Not necessarily. The school is currently about 60% of the city’s budget. Revenues are down. The City has 3 caps, 2 of which are LD1 and essential services. It makes sense to me that the request to remove the spending cap at the beginning of this process rather than waiting until the Superintendent is in the midst of budget season in May to find that the cap is too restrictive and not be able to remove the cap until it would be put before the voters in the fall. Concerns about Bath’s debt – debt, liabilities and assets all need to be looked at, especially when the public is being included.


Ms Jewett - Letter to the Editor in which the Task Force member made it clear that Ms Jewett was speaking from her own point of view, not that of the Task Force. Ms Jewett feels that the Chair of the Task Force should send a rebuttal expounding on the debt, liabilities and assets of Bath and the value of looking at the whole picture.


Chair Garrison – the only comment is that the letter was signed identifying Ms Jewett as a Transition Team Member.


Mr Miller - Union 47 and Bath both seem to have equal assets.


Ms Rice – There is a hope of putting money back into the schools, not just a tax savings. Would it be up to the tax-payers to use any savings to improve the schools? It would be up to the Regional School Board. Another use would be to debt services. You can not bind the next school board by predetermining where any savings went. It seems that the bulk of the savings should go back to the school to continuously improve education.


Chair Garrison – We would not look at the savings as savings, instead we would ask for less money to be funded.


Mr MacDonald – Will there need to be other changes to the charter ready by July?


City Manager Gerioux – Yes, a subcommittee would need to work with Mr Therriault to craft any charter changes.



    1. Alan Cartwright – MCA (Consultant)


Mr Cartwright MCA – will be meeting tomorrow. Toured as many school units today as he could to become familiar with the assets.



    1. TT Update for Dike – Newall PTA


Mr Miller – The Newall PTA was very well informed and wanted more information and updates to put in the parents’ newsletters, public access television, etc. There was an issue brought up that we need a consultant to address the underlying emotional issues that inevitably come up amongst community groups. There were also administrative questions – How does choice apply, how will geographic issues be resolved, etc. Expand on what choices will be available. Will there be magnet schools? All of the questions were good food for thought and we need to be thinking about how to answer these concerns.


Chair Garrison – we need to begin having public information sessions to get the word out as soon as possible. We were invited to attend this PTA meeting.


Mr Miller – This leads us to the point of asking “where are we?” We need to simplify where we are in 500 or 600 words as an interim report and distributed this it would be a good starting point. There is clearly misunderstanding in the area at this point. Every 6 weeks or so we should put out information to keep this before the public. At the moment Co-Chairs Garrison & Barber are our spokesmen, but if we get our script together all of us could be involved in this process. Mr Miller would be willing to write a first draft. There are too many meetings for 2 people to cover and we do all need to be on the same page to minimize confusion. Where are we, where are we going, etc.


Chair Garrison – Yes, write a draft, please, by April 21st.


Ms Jewett – With the Regional Jail we sent out a briefing of one page on a regular basis to use as a handout. We need to keep our message consistent as a Task Force. The written word is better.


Mr Cartwright - Doug Rooks is a writer and will be working with us so he would be a good resource.


Ms Jewett – We have a limited amount of time and it may not be the best use of members’ time to attend all of the various meetings. If we capture the points that are agreed upon at the meetings in the minutes we can grow a handout that will be consistent.


Chair Garrison – some questions will not be able to be answered now, but will be answered by the Regional School Board.


Ms Flink – some of the school boards’ questions are items that we have already answered.


    1. Report on Issues Identified by Union 47 Joint Board & Bath School Board


Chair Garrison handed out copies of the report to committee members and suggested that this report be discussed at the April 21, 2007, workshop.


    1. Report on Educational Excellence – David Miller


Mr Miller – 14 out of 30 surveys returned – there is a lot of interest in reaching the aptitudes of all students and that we encourage post secondary attendance. One of the issues brought out in Union 47 is what will it cost to have all school have access to wireless technology. We need laptops for all students – what are the costs? Integrated curriculum is another issue. Mr Shuttleworth has suggested that the assessment process be centralized and is part of an integrated issue that does not impact the cost structure. Bilingual fluency on graduation would have a cost impact. School choice is a big question. Inter school transportation costs would need to be looked at, but it is probably not a large cost. Mr Miller will work with Mr Shuttleworth on the impacts.


    1. Recommendation of Sub-Committee for Revisions to the Bath City Charter


By consensus it was agreed to establish a subcommittee to review charter changes for Bath and possibly other communities as needed.


Volunteers – Ms Jewett, Mr MacDonald, Ms Rice, Chair Barber


  1. Old Business


    1. Approve minutes of March 30, 2007


Motion made and seconded to approve the minutes of the March 30, 2007 meeting as written.

4.2 – correction – “now available” should be “not available”.

Mrs Look will send the minutes to the co-chairs and they will post the minutes after approval on the website.

Unanimously approved.


None of the minutes have been added to the website as yet and they should be added as soon as they are approved.


    1. Invitation to other towns update


Mr Shuttleworth – has a map colored with each of the nine districts. Each district has between 1,906 and 1,950 and will be available at the next meeting.


Do we need to visit the Wiscasset School or should we let the demographer do her work? We should continue. Mr Shuttleworth recommended that Alna be added to the list of Wiscasset, Dresden and Westport Island. The Transition Team should be asking the School Board Chairs if there is any interest in this project. It may be better to send a formal letter to be very clear. At tomorrow’s meeting the letter will be crafted. Was Wiscasset in our district at one point? Yes. The letter will be run by Mr Shuttleworth before being submitted to any other towns.



  1. Public Comments


Don Cowling – expediting local meetings has value not only in the information itself, but to contributing to people keeping an open mind through communication allowing people to feel a part of the process. This also shows that the Task Force is open to suggestions, etc.


Is there any value in moving this meeting to different venues to help people feel more included?


Motion made and seconded that future meetings be rotated to the various schools represented by this Task Force.


Mr MacDonald – it seems that we should get our meetings more organized before we “take this show on the road” so that people do not get confused and feel that the Transition Team is not accomplishing anything.


Ms Jewett – I would only be comfortable if we published our agenda well in advance – at least 2 months out.


Chair Garrison – I feel this is a good idea that we are not ready for.


Ms Rice – I see this as simply moving the venue of the meeting


Ms Jewett – I would like to see us spend much of our Saturday discussing communication issues and how do we engage the public.


Chair Garrison – we will come up with a very specific agenda for the Saturday meeting.


Motion and second withdrawn.



  1. Closing Remarks


April 25, 2007, in Saco at Saco City Hall there will be a meeting of the surrounding towns to look at regionalization and the Casco Bay Alliance is going to speak to cost savings, teacher training, etc.


Chair Barber & Ms Rice – Tuitioning has been questioned regarding fair and equitable since not all students in the area have had the opportunity to take advantage of this – in particular Bath. One suggestion was made – could we set the tuition rate or ask the State to fix the rate forward while grandfathering those who are already tuitioned. You definitely need to define family in the grandfathered clause. This may be a decision for the Regional School Board.


Ms Flink – balance of tuition and debt would be an interesting conversation


Mr Miller – Issues brought up now begin to sharpen the areas where compromise needs to occur. We need to hear this type of issue so we can begin the compromise. Should we spend time to understand the charts that Mr Shuttleworth handed out?


Mr Shuttleworth – the charts are in response to questions that the Task Force raised. The percentage in the allocation column is based on the student population of each community. Insurance is based on cost per square foot to replace the buildings. Mr Shuttleworth will re-look at the insurance. Union 47 and Bath are within 10% of each other with net worth of assets. Vocational Center ownership is an issue statewide. The communities have access to the Vocational Center, but the building is owned by Bath. There is an advisory board, but it is governed by the Bath School Board. The tuition to the Vocational Center goes back into running the Vocational Center. There are certain operating expenses not included in State set tuition rates, for example athletic program costs. The underpayment of Union 47 attendees is costing Bath roughly $600,000 per year. Due to the imposition of EPS this underpayment is growing year by year. EPS changed the way schools are funded. One of the assumptions in the projections is that every single student will stay where they are. The bonded debt chart is not exact due to the fact that there was not an amortization chart available for these debts. This is only insurmountable is there is no “give to get”. Bath keeps 47% of the debt. If Bath took the debt off the table the regionalization of schools would move along much faster and in exchange Union 47 could take tuition off the table.


School choice is a big emotional issue and if we begin to show this as tradeoffs we begin to have a program to present to the public.


The regional outlook needs to be our focus with each presentation. We need to understand individual’s perspective, but we do not want to loose the forest for the trees. The premise is that this is a balance.


The issue of school choice is an issue in Phippsburg, but only with Woolwich. The fear is that families would move to Woolwich and take up the slots that outlying towns hope to have available to them.


The only monies that most towns get are for Special Education in the form of reimbursement for recognized costs.


What is the impact of state per pupil reimbursement for the region? Mr Shuttleworth has already created this and will bring this to the next meeting.


The towns will be paying real costs, not tuition costs.


Task Force Report and Final Minutes Historical Report (compilation of subcommittee minutes) should both be on bathunioin47.org.



  1. Set agenda for April 21, 2007 meeting




  1. Adjourn


Motion made and seconded to adjourn. Unanimously approved.




Respectfully submitted,


Susan Look