SAD 37 state funding woes spur 5-day walk to Augusta

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COLUMBIA FALLS – The bite of the cold between Feb. 2 and Feb. 7 won’t keep residents of a half-dozen Washington County communities from going face-to-face in Augusta with state legislators, particularly those who sit on the Education Committee.

From rural towns to the big city, they are walking 128 miles over the five days to publicize their points. The Down East residents are asking for equity in the state’s funding formula for rural, small school systems.

Parents with students at the elementary schools in Columbia Falls and Cherryfield know that their schools could be closed if the board of directors of SAD 37 doesn’t find a way around budget shortcomings.

“I could not put my head on the pillow each night knowing that I did not do everything to change this,” Charlene Hammond, one of the walk’s organizers, said on Friday.

The SAD 37 board is scheduled to vote on school closures at its Feb. 15 meeting. But even sooner, the local parents and school staffs are anxious to learn the outcome of the Feb. 7 meeting in Augusta.

That’s when the legislature’s Education Committee will learn whether the Department of Education is going to reshape the state’s new funding formula – called Essential Programs and Services – that leaves disparities between urban and rural schools.

When announced last winter, the new formula showed that SAD 37 would receive $816,000 less per year in state funding. The state covered the full difference of that last spring with “transition money,” but no one knows the level of transition money coming this way for SAD 37’s next budget.

All of which is why SAD 37 parents, school staff, children and taxpayers all want to be heard at the Legislature level – and plan to be present at the Feb. 7 meeting.

They are calling their project the SAD 37 Candlelight March to Augusta.

“Candlelight” is symbolic, as they will be walking by day – between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. But the lead walker will carry a battery-operated candle that will pass to the next walkers.

A car will follow the walkers to provide relief to get out of the cold. No one is expected to go the whole distance, but at least one walker will be pounding the pavement for 10 hours, with others along to keep company. The walkers should cover about 28 to 30 miles per day.

They will leave an orange cone by the road where the walkers end each day.

The walkers will be wearing red – good for photos against the sky, of course, but also symbolic of both red tape and red ink.

They will have local, safety-minded escorts in different fire department vehicles and ambulance crews, depending on the municipalities they pass through.

Starting with balloons and a send-off from the Columbia Falls school at 10 a.m. next Thursday, the group will walk to Cherryfield, where another sendoff from that school will take place. They hope to reach Franklin by day’s end by the Blackwoods Road.

On Friday, Feb. 3, they will pass through Ellsworth to finish Day 2 in Orland. Day 3 (Saturday, Feb. 4) will bring them to Belfast on Route 3, and Day 4 will carry them to Palermo, also along Route 3.

The group will go from Palermo to Augusta on Monday, Feb. 6. At 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 7, they will stage a rally at the Capitol.

Buses have been approved by SAD 37 to transport area supporters to Augusta for the rally and the Education Committee meeting on Feb. 7.

The march organizers have been studying the Maine map, much to the excitement of the younger walkers.

“Are we walking across Maine?” 9-year-old Aidan Hammond asked his mother as she talked about the plans. “I’ve only been to Canada and Bangor and Portland.”

Charlene Hammond is keenly involved in the planning because her husband, Courtney Hammond, is one of the town’s two SAD 37 representatives.

The organizers presented their plans for the walk to SAD 37 directors last Wednesday – and found complete support.

The five-day walk actually originated with one of the directors, Steve Pagels of Cherryfield. He is also SAD 37 chairman.

“I may be a board chairman, but I’m also a Cherryfield director,” he said. “I asked the superintendent [Dr. Deb Stewart] about it, because I was in a quandary whether to suggest it to the others. She said, ‘Go for it!'”

The march isn’t simply a call not to close local schools – it’s a call that organizers hope will unify the state’s 132 small schools that have been negatively affected by the EPS formula.

Lynne Toppin, a Columbia Falls parent, has been helping work out the walk’s details. She is making contact with all 132 schools, as well as all the municipalities, along the way of the walk.

She said she estimates that as many as 100 or 200 people from SAD 37 will join in the effort.

Pagels believes that’s too conservative a number and expects even more.

“I am very encouraged by how people have grabbed hold of this,” he said. “Hopefully it will make a difference. Not just for Columbia Falls and Cherryfield, but for all small schools across the state.”

To learn about the SAD 37 Candlelight Walk to Augusta, contact Jean Mathews of Cherryfield at jmathews@cherryfieldfoods.com.