State may be aiming shoitgun consolidation at Bangor, Glenburn schools

BANGOR – Local officials from Bangor and Glenburn are concerned that the state is arranging a shotgun marriage of their school systems.

State Education Commissioner Susan Gendron on Thursday ruled that Glenburn’s proposals for school consolidation don’t comply with the requirements of the reorganization law.

On the same day, she issued a letter to Bangor Superintendent Robert Ervin. In it, she wrote that while Bangor’s plan to opt out of the state-mandated consolidation process does comply with the state’s school reorganization law, she planned to convene a meeting in the region and would invite representatives from both communities.

“A more detailed financial analysis will be presented and [state Department of Education] staff and facilitators will be available to assist in further exploring reorganization options within the region,” she wrote.

Contrary to her original suggestion that Glenburn join with Hudson, Bradford, Corinth, Stetson and Kenduskeag, Gendron now is stating that the Department of Education will convene a meeting in the region to discuss the long-term sustainability of a relationship between the Glenburn and Bangor school departments.

“I really don’t know how to respond – I was stunned,” Ervin said Friday when asked for his reaction to the letter.

Until Thursday, Ervin had been under the impression that Bangor wouldn’t be subject to consolidation because its enrollment of about 3,800 students was well over the state-set enrollment threshold of 2,500 students.

Despite that, however, school officials in Bangor went through the required steps.

“The Bangor School Department met with all of its potential partners and we followed what we thought were all the guidelines. We did our due diligence,” Ervin said.

“We not only looked at financial impact but more importantly, the educational impact,” he said. “In the final analysis, we decided that [consolidation] was not in our best interest. We met the statutory obligations. What’s left after that?” he said.

“I’m deeply frustrated by approval with a caveat,” he said. “I don’t think anybody in Bangor is going to support this. Why would Bangor taxpayers want to support this when Glenburn has had a lower [property] tax rate for years and has not paid its teachers as much [as Bangor has].”

Glenburn’s letters of intent to the state included two options for consolidation:

. Glenburn, Orono and Veazie would combine, which would meet the state’s requirement to have a public or publicly supported high school. The combination, however, would not create an RSU of 2,500-plus students.

. A kindergarten through eighth grade RSU including Glenburn, Orrington, Dedham, Milford, SAD 63 and CSD 8.

Both proposals were deemed inconsistent with the state’s original direction.

“This does not stop us from continuing with others, like Orono and Veazie,” Ron Tewhey, Glenburn Regionalization Planning Committee chairman, said Friday.

“We could have made some savings work [under either of its proposals], but obviously [Gendron] didn’t agree,” he said.

“When [Bangor] gave us their financial data, we gave them ours and they took theirs and ours and ran it through their business manager,” he said.

Bangor’s business manager concluded that Glenburn would gain $722,000, while Bangor would lose that amount.

“So the financial part didn’t work for them on this with Glenburn,” Tewhey said. “In that case, it didn’t look good.”

“Glenburn has options,” Ervin said. “They aren’t the odd man out. Why would Bangor taxpayers suddenly want to see their mill rate increase in order to subsidize a consolidation?”