Tops in scores, SAD 37 fears LD 1 effect

HARRINGTON – What the five elementary schools within SAD 37 have taken three years to achieve – the state’s highest Maine Education Assessment scores as a district – could be dismantled in a day.

School officials in Harrington, Milbridge, Cherryfield, Columbia Falls and Addison are alarmed that today’s scheduled vote by state lawmakers on LD 1 and the governor’s property-tax reform plan will yield financial blows from which Washington County schools can’t recover.

One legislator – with no connections to Down East – last week termed what lies ahead for Washington County schools if the package passes “the perfect storm.”

The part of LD 1 – “An Act To Increase the State Share of Education Costs, Reduce Property Taxes and Reduce Government Spending at All Levels” – that most troubles SAD 37 administrators is the plan to boost state aid to local schools to 55 percent over four years.

While LD 1 contains nearly $14 million in additional education funding to reimburse communities that would lose money next year under the new formula, Washington County schools stand to lose close to $2 million in state subsidies two years from now.

Administrators were taken aback earlier this month when the long-awaited formula to subsidize what the state calls “essential programs and services” revealed that SAD 37 would receive $816,000 less for its 2005-2006 budget.

That amount was exceeded statewide only by SAD 61 in the Bridgton-Sebago Lake area of Cumberland County with its $1.3 million hit.

A quick visit to Gov. John Baldacci by SAD 37’s superintendent and board chairman helped restore some funding for the state’s most rural schools, which were granted a transition year to adjust to the depth of the state’s pending cuts.

Superintendent George Kiley and board Chairman Steve Pagels were back in Augusta on Wednesday, hats in hand, asking for another revision to the formula. Still, if the bill passes, SAD 37 will have to live on $764,421 less from the state in 2006-2007 – about 10 percent less than the district’s current annual budget.

Kiley, for one, can’t see how schools can function if those kinds of figures are imposed on local budgets. Especially in SAD 37, which has recently fostered a districtwide pride in a promising model for teaching and learning – and has the test scores to show it.

“It represents a loss of income to the point where you can’t even operate your system anymore,” Kiley told about 100 school board members, selectmen and concerned residents in an emergency meeting called by SAD 37 last week.

The budget overhaul will reorient SAD 37 principals and teachers toward making the bare-bones numbers work rather than building on the academic progress the area’s pupils have achieved since Harvey Silver appeared in their schools. Silver is a New Jersey-based educational consultant who began working with the district just weeks after Kiley’s arrival at the SAD 37 office from Geneva, N.Y., in 2002.

Under Silver’s tutelage, monthly “learning clubs” link the teachers of the district’s five elementary schools. Principals are far more involved in classrooms than previously, encouraging more engaging ways for pupils to master unit material.

Additionally, any SAD 37 teacher or educational technician who needs more help in understanding Silver’s concepts and teaching suggestions can get immediate assistance by phone or e-mail.

One of Silver’s themes, Kiley notes, is “making students as important as standards.”

SAD 37 contracted with Silver’s company, Silver Strong and Associates LLC, three years ago. In bringing his Thoughtful Education program to the district’s elementary schools, Silver has helped shape the new ways that professionals teach and youngsters learn from Milbridge to Addison.

“Stay close and curious” is how John Sawyer, principal of Cherryfield Elementary, described his new role to a meeting last month of Washington County’s nine superintendents.

They were eager to hear about SAD 37’s transformation both in classrooms and on paper, as evidenced through MEA scores.

Created as part of the state’s Educational Reform Act of 1984, the MEA is designed to measure student and school progress in achieving the academic standards outlined in Maine’s Learning Results. The MEA tests students in the fourth, eighth and 11th grades on reading, writing, mathematics, science and social studies skills.

Some notable outcomes of the 2004 MEA scores, released in September:

. Cherryfield and Columbia Falls elementary schools are positioned 1-2 in the grade eight rank order for schools statewide, when scores for reading, writing, math and science are averaged. Of the state’s 369 public elementary schools 232 serve the grade six through eight population.

. Harrington, Cherryfield and Columbia Falls hold the 3-5-6 positions statewide in the grade four rank order for the same statistic. (Islesboro and Peaks Island schools hold the 1-2 positions.)

. Harrington was identified in November as a Title 1 Distinguished School for 2004 – the only elementary school in Maine and just one of 80 elementary schools so-named nationwide. Principal Ron Ramsay and fourth-grade teacher Steven Noyes will travel to Atlanta next week to be recognized at a national conference for Title 1 schools. (Title 1 provides federal funding for schools serving lower-income families).

In recognition of Harrington’s achievement and SAD 37’s overall test-score success, the district got a visit from state Education Commissioner Susan Gendron a week before Thanksgiving.

She is just one of dozens of educators who have been asking Kiley how the district’s scores rose to the top of the state’s lists. After all, Washington County’s economy doesn’t allow for frills or any fancy professional development in school budgets.

“Look good and sound smart” is the theme that all the SAD 37 schools have adopted for their students this year. In this case, they are smart.