Consolidation repeal campaign begins

BANGOR – Opponents of the state’s school consolidation plan on Saturday kicked off their petition drive to repeal the law.

About 50 people from around the state, including local and state officials, superintendents, parents and schoolgirls showed up at the Ramada Inn in a rainstorm for an afternoon rally organized by the Maine Coalition to Save Schools.

“This law will leave a hole in my community,” D.J. Gordon, 14, of Old Orchard Beach said. “This is an issue that will cost more in money. It will cost our small town communities their heart. Their soul.”

A freshman at Old Orchard Beach High School, she and her sister, Katie Gordon, 17, and a senior at the same school, spoke in support of the coalition’s efforts.

“As a team, we need to repeal this law that would break apart my community,” Katie Gordon told the group.

The group’s goal is to collect 100,000 signatures, almost double the required amount, before the holiday season in December “to make a statement to the Legislature,” Chairman Lawrence “Skip” Greenlaw Jr. said.

“If we work real hard and get enough signatures and talk with enough legislators, then by January, they’ll want to repeal it,” he said.

Before Saturday’s event, more than 1,600 petitions had been distributed in all of the state’s 16 counties, Greenlaw said. So far the coalition has volunteers collecting signatures in 211 cities, towns and plantations.

The Legislature is scheduled to reconvene Jan. 2 for its short session when it will deal with bills leftover from the previous session or deemed an “emergency” by leadership.

Lawmakers last week sidelined more than 60 requests – many of which had identical or similar titles – that would make changes in law. Leaders gave assurances that all proposed changes to the school consolidation law will be considered by the Education Committee, according a Bangor Daily News report, but said considering each bill individually would take too much time.

The coalition needs to collect 55,087 signatures and file them with the Secretary of State’s Office no later than Jan. 28, 2008, in order for the petition to be considered by legislators during their next session. If lawmakers did not enact the petition, it would go before voters during the general election in November 2008, according to Greenlaw.

Over the past week, the group garnered endorsements from two groups, the Maine Green Independent Party and the Maine School Boards Association. During its annual conference in Augusta last week, the MSBA voted overwhelmingly to support the coalition’s effort, Greenlaw said.

The coalition also is asking school boards and municipal governing boards such as city and town councils and boards of selectmen to pass resolutions supporting the petition drive.

The coalition will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the State House. For more information on the Maine Coalition to Save Schools, call 367-2738 or e-mail skipg@hypernet.com.