Reorganization Planning Committee Page

Latest news:

Here are the results of the January 27 referendum (from the Bangor Daily News - link here):

SAD'S 4, 46, Harmony Willimantic vote no
GUILFORD, Maine - SADs 4 and 46 and the towns of Willimantic and Harmony overwhelmingly rejected a school reorganization plan Tuesday during a referendum vote.

SAD 46 voted 345-87 against the plan. The votes in the SAD 46 communities were Dexter 53 yes, 195 no; Ripley, 13 yes, 39 no; Garland, 18 yes, 63 no, and Exeter, 3 yes, 48 no.

SAD 4 rejected the plan 592-30. The votes by towns were Guilford, 5 yes, 152 no; Sangerville, 9 yes, 145 no; Abbot, 6 yes, 109 no; Parkman, 6 yes, 99 no; Wellington, 4 yes, 32 no, and Cambridge, 0 yes, 55 no.

Harmony rejected the plan 97-11, and Willimantic voted it down 52-2.

The State required revisions were made to the Reorganization plan by the ROC on October 20th. Click here to see the revised plan.

This plan has been submitted to the attorney for review, and will go to each school committee for their vote to re-submit to the state. If the commissioner then approves the plan public hearings will be held in each school system following the posting of warrants for an expected January 27th vote.

Here is Perceptions and Process: Early Findings from a Study of School District Consolidation in Maine Report to the Penquis Superintendents' Association. May 15, 2008

On December 20^th a steering group consisting of the RPC Co-Chairs, Facilitator, School Board Chairs, and Superintendents met to create a schedule of meetings and to work on some procedural and organizational details.

Organizational/Procedural Details:

Timeline - we will operate with the intent of having the plan completed by June of '08. This will allow for public hearings in the late summer/early fall followed by a referendum on or before November 4^th. While the letter from the commissioner approving our plan to date calls for the finished plan to be filed by February 1^st of '08, we all know that will be impossible. As portions of the plan receive "tentative approval" from the full RPC, we will forward those to the DOE periodically in order to update them on our progress.
Clerical Work - Michelle Ward will be compensated at a rate of $15 per hour for her work as RPC Secretary. Loretta Nuite will work with her and be compensated at the same rate. Dave Fournier will be responsible for website posting of RPC documents and will also be compensated at a rate of $15.00 per hour. The funds for this work will come from the $2500 allocated to the RPC for "general" purposes. SAD #4 will act as fiscal agent for these funds.

Some of the specific tasks are as follows

-send out meeting reminders and other e-mails/mailings

-post meetings to the general public

-collect and collate segments of the plan as they become complete (electronically)

-prepare agendas for RPC meetings

-prepare minutes from RPC meetings

-post all materials and information to the SAD #46 website

Information/Communication

Each sub-committee will have a chair and/or a person responsible for recording the minutes of each work session and filing them with the secretary in electronic format. Completed sections of the plan (using the Drummond/Woodsum electronic template) will be prepared and filed by this person as they become available for a full RPC tentative approval vote.
Requests for information from SAU's, DOE, or other entities should come through the sub-committee chairs or RPC Co-chairs in order to avoid duplication and confusion. We hope that, in most cases, these requests can be made at the end of an RPC meeting, with the goal to have the materials/information available at the next meeting.
The Co-chairs have determined that the facilitator will act as official spokesperson for the RPC when dealing with the press.
As a subcommittee completes its tasks, members will be reassigned to help with the remaining RPC work.
As sections of the plan receive tentative approval from the full RPC, they will be posted on the SAD #46 website with the disclaimer that they are in draft form and open to further revision prior to a referendum.

We look forward to seeing you on January 14^th at Dexter Regional High School.

Sincerely,

Paul Bridge

Ella Munday

RPC Co-Chairs

Agendas and Minutes

(in Adobe PDF format)

1-14-08 Agenda (cancelled)

1-28-08 Minutes

2-11-08 Minutes

2-25-08 Minutes

3-10-08 Minutes

3-24-08 Minutes

4-14-08 Minutes

4-28-08 Minutes

5-12-08 Minutes

6-9-08 Minutes

6-23-08 Minutes

7-7-08 Minutes

7-21-08 Minutes

8-4-08 Minutes

10-4-08 - Minutes

10-20-08 Minutes

Upcoming Meetings

None scheduled at this time.