Money isn’t the issue

An economist comparing teacher salaries in Lamoine and Ellsworth might get the impression that Ellsworth is a poor bedroom community of the city of Lamoine. A historian might get the impression that the Ellsworth school system is a feudal society created for the benefit of a few at the expense of many. Ellsworth teachers used to compare themselves to those in Bucksport and Mount Desert Island and to be near the “state average” in salaries. No more. The present school board and superintendent are among the most insensitive and arrogant that I can recall in my 31-year career. Having destroyed the traditional step salary schedule and all hope for orderly advancement, they are now actively attempting to destroy our health coverage, which has been paid for many times over by accepting low salaries.

It is not a question of money. There is money in Ellsworth. Check out the new baseball field fence ($20,000?) erected last fall for a few ball games each spring. Observe the many thousands spent on “improvements” to the track complex last fall on the “million-dollar mountain” for a couple of track meets. Examine the administrator trips to exotic locales, the hiring of an $18,000 part-time athletic director, the Spectrum program, various well-paid “consultants,” the large increases in the superintendent’s salary to bring him up to “state average,” etc. (Any teacher would be delighted with the rate of increase obtained by the superintendent and his wife since their arrival in Ellsworth.) Even a 3 percent increase for the superintendent is a down-payment on a Cadillac. For the average teacher it’s more like an oil change for an Escort.

No, it’s not a question of money, but rather a question of management, attitude, priorities and the arrogance of power. Ellsworth deserves better. A fine school system is being destroyed. The glitter, the show and the appearance that all is well is a malignancy which is eating the educational body of Ellsworth. Albert L. Buswell Ellsworth