This is the winter of their discontent.

Maine’s school consolidation law has come under heavy criticism from regional planning committees over the last few months, and in response the state’s education commissioner has proposed changes intended to address some of the critics’ questions.

But some planners still have deep concerns about whether the law, even with changes, can work.

“The more we go along with this, the more problems we find,” said Mary Cummins, co-chair of the Regional School Union 10 planning committee on the Blue Hill Peninsula. “What we’re worried about is that there are things we haven’t seen yet. We’re trying to make decisions without information.”

At their meeting last week, the members of that committee, whose towns include Blue Hill, Brooklin, Brooksville, Castine, Penobscot, Deer Isle, Stonington and Sedgwick, voted not to meet again until they learn how the Legislature deals with the consolidation law. Other planning committees have taken similar action.

Some of the problems facing the planning committees were outlined earlier this month in a statement approved by the executive committee of the Maine State Superintendents Association. That statement highlighted what they viewed as some of the major “flaws” in the school consolidation law and suggested amendments to correct them. The statement was approved by a 14-2 vote of the board, backed by input from member superintendents around the state.

According to Barry McLaughlin, Union 107 superintendent in the Baileyville area, who serves as MSSA president, the statement mirrors a resolution adopted by the Maine School Board Association earlier this year.

The flaws in the law cited in the superintendents’ statement include:

. Unreasonable timeline requirements.

. Unsubstantiated claims of cost savings and property tax relief.

. Cost shifting that will severely disadvantage some communities.

. A cumbersome and costly budget validation referendum approval process.

. Not recognizing or honoring the demographic nature of the state with its requirement for 2,500-student units.

The superintendents said the law should be amended to:

. Allow sufficient time for the process.

. Require extensive research to determine if improved student learning can be validated as a result of consolidation.

. Require the Education Department to prepare a validated financial analysis to show projections for General Purpose Aid and to identify specific savings.

. Create a task force to identify problems in the law and recommend solutions.

. Consider benefits of regionalization of services.

. Authorize each Regional Student Union legislative body to determine the budget approval method.

. Allow each RSU to adopt its own cost-sharing agreements.

The statement noted that the problems cited represent only some of the issues that need to be addressed, and the superintendents said that taking the time to identify, address and correct those deficiencies would offer an opportunity to make voluntary consolidation and regionalization workable.

“If the Department of Education continues to portray this law as needing only minor adjustments to be workable,” they said, “then the resulting consequences will directly and negatively impact all Maine students, schools and communities.”

Education Department Director of Communications David Connerty-Marin said Wednesday that the largest problems cited by the superintendents are addressed in the commissioner’s proposed changes, and he acknowledged there are still difficulties.

“This is an extremely challenging process,” he said. “The timelines are aggressive. And we have another timeline, which is that in less than two years education funding comes under state funding limits, and school systems will see a rapid flattening of state subsidies. If we don’t do something about that now, we’ll be looking at far more serious impacts than we’re looking at here.”

He said that some problems in the consolidation process will be solved in the legislation, and “some will be addressed through developing creative solutions.”

Proposed changes

The Legislature’s Education Committee on Dec. 13 recommended passage of Education Commissioner Susan Gendron’s proposed changes to the law which are intended to eliminate some of the roadblocks to consolidation.

If approved, that bill will:

. Enable regional school units to design their own method for sharing the local cost of running the unit.

. Allow towns that now receive a minimum state subsidy to retain those funds when they join a reorganized system.

. Eliminate the requirement that all communities must raise at least 2 mills for education.

. Put in place a uniform budget approval process.

The Education Committee also is scheduled to begin hearings on Jan. 4 to tackle more than 60 amendments submitted by legislators to address problems with the law.

The legislative proposals deal with a wide variety of issues, some of which are addressed in the commissioner’s bill, such as cost-sharing issues and the 2-mill requirement.

Others deal with issues such as eliminating the penalties for not complying with the law, expanding the deadlines for compliance, and adding a provision to allow a town to withdraw from a regional school unit. They also address issues of debt service, costs related to high school choice, the transfer of property to the new RSUs, labor markets, and hiring school personnel. One bill would require the state to cover the costs involved in school consolidation. And there are several proposals to repeal the law.

More questions to ponder

House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, said last week that she did not believe there is enough support in the Legislature to repeal the law. Pingree said, however, that she thinks legislators will be willing to amend the law to make it more flexible and workable for the towns and regional committees.

The law could change significantly when it comes to the Legislature, she said.

“There is an appetite for change beyond what the governor has proposed,” she said.

Other legislators are less convinced. Rep. Howard McFadden, R-Dennysville, said he doubts that there will be any meaningful change from the Legislature.

“I think they’re just trying to appease everybody,” he said. “I’d be very surprised if any of these bills go anywhere. I think the only amendments you’ll see will come out of the education office.”

Although Rep. James Schatz, D-Blue Hill, has supported repeal of the law, he said legislators nonetheless have a responsibility to make a bad law better.

“We have an obligation to work with what was left us,” he said. “First and most important is to get rid of it [the law]. If that fails, then we have to make it function as well as we can.”

The problem with the commissioner’s proposal for changes, he said, is that it doesn’t address any of the problems that the people in his district are dealing with.

“It pushes the burden onto the planning committees, and they already have enough of a burden,” Schatz said. “There does not seem to be an understanding or a sensitivity to our issues. There’s not a lot of attention being given to it. This [bill] might resonate somewhere else and bring some [people] over, just not here.”

In Washington County, the Baileyville region planning committee also is dealing with issues that do not seem to be addressed in proposed legislation, according to Superintendent Barry McLaughlin.

“We’ve been meeting for three months, from September until now, and we’ve resolved very, very few issues,” McLaughlin said. “Every time we meet there are more questions than answers.”

Among the issues that lack answers, he said, are: issues of debt service, conflicting transportation arrangements, loss of local control and districtwide contracts for teachers and staff. Some of those issues are not addressed in any of the bills submitted to the Legislature, he said.

One of the key deficiencies in the law, many say, is that it attempts to apply one solution to a state that differs widely from region to region and often, from town to town. The “one-size-fits-all” approach has never worked in Maine, McLaughlin said, and it will not be effective here because there are too many differences – in demographics, politics and geography.

“This is the most important change in education in the last 50 years, since the Sinclair Act,” he said. “That’s all the more reason to get this right.”

rhewitt@bangordailynews.net

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