Bangor school system won’t have to consolidate

BANGOR – After meetings with Maine’s education commissioner Monday, school officials in Bangor learned they don’t have to merge with any of their smaller neighbors, while Glenburn received a green light for continued talks with its preferred consolidation partners.

An effort to consolidate Maine’s 152 school administrative systems into no more than 80 regional units was signed into law in early June.

The measure, which has proved controversial in some regions, likely will generate some lively debate today, when Department of Education Commissioner Susan Gendron returns to Bangor for a speaking engagement at the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce’s early bird breakfast scheduled for 7:30 a.m. at the Spectacular Event Center.

During the first of two meetings Monday in the Bangor area, Gendron said she has reconsidered her original denial of Glenburn’s desire to consolidate with Orono and Veazie.

During a session with Glenburn Superintendent Doug Smith, Gendron gave verbal confirmation allowing the community to continue discussions with the Union 87 towns.

In a later session with Bangor Superintendent Robert Ervin, Gendron confirmed Bangor, with an enrollment of about 3,800 students, is well over the state-set enrollment threshold of 2,500 students, meaning that it is eligible under the state’s school unit reorganization law to opt out of the consolidation process.

“We never told Bangor they had to do anything,” said Gendron’s spokesman, David Connerty-Marin. “We just wanted them to talk.”

Gendron had written a letter to Ervin asking that Bangor look at regional collaborations with other area schools, such as shared services, that could be beneficial to everyone, Connerty-Marin said.

Her suggestion made waves in Bangor, where school officials had concluded that merging with a smaller neighboring unit would not have been advantageous from either a fiscal or an educational standpoint.

Glenburn submitted two letters of intent by the state’s August deadline, but both were rejected by Gendron, who suggested the community should be looking to consolidate with neighboring Bangor.

The school regionalization planning committee last month appealed Gendron’s denial of Glenburn’s letter of intent to consolidate with Orono and Veazie. The approval doesn’t mean Glenburn has ruled out all other options, but the regionalization planning committee will discuss the issue at its meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, at the town office.

“I don’t have confirmation in writing, but she did say that we could proceed,” Glenburn Superintendent Doug Smith said Monday. “I was thrilled and I think everybody else is too.”

The Glenburn regionalization committee also is expected to discuss changes with its membership, including the resignation of Chairman Ron Tewhey.

Tewhey submitted his letter of resignation last week to Smith.

“As you all know, I did not seek out to become the chairperson of the RPC Committee, and only did so because no one else would volunteer,” Tewhey wrote in the letter. “The superintendent and I have worked relentlessly to pull all of you together and to prepare agendas to give some sort of order and accountability to our work. Given the actions taken at previous meetings I have come to the conclusion that any further effort on my part to achieve these goals would be a waste of my time.”

Tewhey said he’s frustrated with the actions of some school committee members and his resignation is the culmination of a series of events.

“It doesn’t matter what I do, I’m just not going to get anywhere with them,” he said.

Jan Placella, one of two school committee representatives to the regionalization committee, recently resigned from the regionalization committee for personal reasons.

Rather than appoint a new member in public, Tewhey said the school committee made its selection without proper public process.

“There’s no rules defined in law, but they [the school committee] still have no legal authority over that committee,” Tewhey said. “Anything that I tried to do, they tried to circumvent.”

Tewhey said he would continue to serve as council chairman, but no longer will serve on the regionalization committee.

“The commissioner felt that Glenburn had been doing good work with Veazie and Orono since she sent her initial letter of response,” Connerty-Marin said Monday. “She still thinks that a larger partnership would make some sense, and would provide for additional opportunities and sustainability, but she is not opposed to Glenburn continuing discussions with Veazie and Orono.”

Gendron told Smith she would like Glenburn to discuss regionalization possibilities with Old Town and Union 90, in addition to Orono and Veazie.

The commissioner’s decision to allow a new regional school unit with the three communities likely negates the proposed K-8 regional unit that Glenburn previously discussed with SAD 63 and CSD 8, but area regionalization committees are expected to address the issue at meetings later this week.

The next deadline, according to the state’s timeline, is Dec. 1, when each school unit must submit its reorganization plan or alternative plan to the state Department of Education, which then will approve or return it by Dec. 15.