SCHOOL SOLUTIONS

With the closure of the Georgia-Pacific mill, Old Town is grappling with a large hole in its school budget. Neighboring Orono also has budget trouble, mostly because the number of children in town is declining. These problems present an opportunity for the towns to consider school consolidation, from joint athletic programs to combining their high schools.

While the future of the GP mill is not certain, the facility, if it re-opens, will employ far fewer people and pay less in taxes than it did at the start of the year. When operational, the mill represented one-third of Old Town’s tax base. Town officials are now looking for ways to cut more than $1.5 million from next year’s municipal and school budgets.

Before the mill closed, the school committee was already preparing to cut $740,000 from its budgets. They are now considering another round of cuts. Eliminating teaching and administration positions and reducing or eliminating extra-curricular activities are among the cost savings being discussed.

Orono’s problem is that its school enrollment is declining, with the slide projected to continue. Rather than both communities struggling to maintain their academic and sports programs, they should work together.

A first step would be for both town councils to vote on establishing a joint committee to consider the consolidation of the school systems. There will be much talk about athletic rivalries, long bus rides and teacher contracts, but these should not be excuses for dismissing a cooperative approach to a growing long-term problem.

Such a conversation may find that combining unlimited entry sports programs, such as swimming and track, or offering four advanced placement classes at one high school and four at the other may be a good place to begin a cooperative venture. The end result may or may not be a combined school system – with the individual community elementary schools left open – but without beginning the conversation, no savings will be found and one or both school systems will have diminished offerings.

School consolidation is not a popular topic in Maine, but there are success stories. Under similar circumstances, the middle and high schools in the western Maine towns of Mexico and Rumford were merged 20 years ago. The merger, by most accounts, has gone well with students pleased with the wide variety of classes offered and the quality of the sports teams at Mountain View High School.

Logistics and politics can be high hurdles to clear, but they don’t have to be impediments to cooperation between, or consolidation of, schools. Old Town and Orono, with the resources of the University of Maine in their back yards, have an opportunity to lead the way.