MILLINOCKET – Everything is negotiable.

That was the message recently from Town Council Chairman Wallace Paul to East Millinocket, Medway and Woodville as he tried to re-ignite interest in the proposed local consolidation of Millinocket and Union 113 schools.

“Our existing [school] structure within these communities is costing taxpayers a lot. In some areas it’s getting dramatically costly,” Paul said recently. “At the same time, our educational opportunities for our kids are going down, because we have not been able to afford to stay where we were.

“Let’s talk this through and then maybe come up with reasons not to do this – at the end, not the beginning,” he added. “Let’s sit down with open minds so that our children have an opportunity for a better education.”

Mixed response to plan

Under Millinocket and Union 113 Superintendent Sara Alberts’ admittedly incomplete plan, Granite Street School of Millinocket and Opal Myrick Elementary School of East Millinocket would close. Medway Middle School would house

prekindergarten to grade three; Schenck High School in East Millinocket would house grades four to eight; and Stearns High School in Millinocket would house – with extensive barriers between them – kindergarten to grade three students and grades nine to 12 students.

Or Schenck could house kindergarten through third-grade and high school students while Stearns takes grades four to eight, Millinocket officials said.

Millinocket town officials are enthusiastic about the plan, which they say would save $45,000 and restore many educational programs lost to budget cuts among schools, but Union 113 officials have a plethora of issues.

They cite as concerns: Alberts’ plan lacking details; losing Schenck as a high school; concerns about Millinocket’s finances and school debt; the perceived arrogance of Millinocket residents; Millinocket’s being too decentralized in the Katahdin region; their residents’ lacking interest in Millinocket consolidation; and Millinocket’s sometimes bitter politics.

“I don’t think there’s enough information in that packet to make any solid decision,” new Union 113 School Board Chairman Greg Stanley of Medway said. “I don’t think you rush into these things. There is too much changing and things at stake to warrant that.”

No further talks planned

The Union 113 meeting with Millinocket on Dec. 17 was postponed after several Union 113 members said they had no interest in re-examining local consolidation, and acting East Millinocket School Committee Chairman Gary Morin was replaced at the last Union 113 meeting.

The only Union 113 board member to support consolidation, Morin was replaced by Stanley, who said he sees little chance of further meetings occurring until later this month. Stanley expressed displeasure at Millinocket’s pushing the issue.

“We have three boards that want to take time with everything and look it over and we have one board [Millinocket] that’s rushing to jump into this,” Stanley said. “Why are we wrong and them right just because we see differently?

“If anything, the way they are acting makes us want to go the other way,” he added.

And Medway’s Board of Selectmen has supported the Medway School Committee’s position, encouraging school board members not to rush local consolidation, Stanley said.

Similarly, East Millinocket’s School Committee has privately questioned how well Millinocket schools are operated and Millinocket’s willingness to listen and share authority.

Katahdin-area towns pay about $13,000 in taxes per student. The rest of Maine averages about $9,000. Katahdin’s student population has dropped by half over the last 10 to 20 years, driving up costs, leading to cuts in programs and forcing teachers to teach multiple courses and disciplines, Paul said.

The school systems already share administrators and some sports and arts programs. According to a 2006 survey of students that drew a 95 percent response rate at Schenck and an 88.5 percent response at Stearns, students expressed considerable support for sharing sports and arts offerings between schools.

Students have also told the Millinocket Town Council that they want more shared programs among schools.

And Stearns High School is among 13 state high schools to receive gold, silver or bronze medals last month in a school ranking in U.S. News & World Report magazine. Stearns received a bronze medal.

The high school was also lavishly praised by regional accreditation reviewers in 2006 for its modern curriculum and performing arts programs, among other things.

“There is a wonderful relationship between students and teachers,” reviewers wrote. “A visitor can quickly sense the caring and the nurturing. Teachers give freely of their time … to help students. Class sizes are very reasonable and can allow for greater personalization.”

‘A personality thing’

Mark Scally, chairman of the East Millinocket Board of Selectmen and a retired high school music teacher, acknowledged that consolidation would probably enrich Katahdin schools.

Efforts to combine arts and music programs are succeeding, he said, but many consolidation obstacles remain. One is the lack of consensus among Union 113 school boards and Millinocket’s. The four towns’ attempt to create a unified administration under Alberts “is not working.”

“It’s a tug of war in that everybody thinks she’s on one side or another,” Scally said.

The East Millinocket and Millinocket school unions recently issued unprecedented votes of no confidence in Alberts – a sign of the schools’ administrative problems, Scally said. Alberts has declined to comment.

“The other problem is that there’s an ingrained hostility and feeling of superiority in Millinocket toward the other towns,” he added. “It’s a personality thing and it’s ingrained from generations.”

The antagonism begins, Scally said, in decades-old rivalry between East Millinocket and Millinocket paper mills, with Millinocket’s facility historically the larger and more productive.

This helped shape Millinocket as the largest of the Katahdin communities, with about 8,300 residents at its zenith. The other towns individually have less than half that.

The Millinocket mill’s collapse and mixed resurgence over the last decade left East Millinocket’s mill larger and more productive. This creates payback in East Millinocket.

The mutual antagonism, Scally said, “is the shame of it all.”

‘Sound financial footing’

Millinocket Town Manager Eugene Conlogue is frustrated with the criticism of town and school finances. The schools carry about $3.4 million in debt because of renovations to Stearns and Granite Street schools that made both top facilities, he said.

As a town, Millinocket carries only about $6.1 million in debt, or about 13.7 percent of the total debt, $44.5 million, allowed under state statutes, Conlogue said and has a healthy $2.2 million in its undesignated fund balance.

“We’re on very sound financial footing,” he said.

“What is apparently missing from some of these consolidation [school board meetings] is a discussion about the kids, students and their welfare,” Conlogue said.

Sound educational and fiscal concerns should motivate consolidation talks, Conlogue said. The towns should also take more pride in the services shared, which include recreation and code enforcement.

“You have to wonder,” he said, “why it is more important to fight the battles of 100 years ago than it is to look toward the future? We are trying to work within our geographic area to make things better, to help our students and taxpayers to do better.”

Yet the most difficult part of consolidation, particularly for East Millinocket, might be the idea of closing or retasking school buildings.

“It’s too bad that Stearns and Schenck couldn’t remain the same,” Scally said. “I maintain that there’s no reason why Schenck High School can’t become K through 12 and go it alone. As long as the mill keeps running it could happen. Is that necessarily the best position? No.”

The best hope for local consolidation, Stanley and Scally said, is a fully articulated plan that demonstrates the programs gained in Union 113 and Millinocket; and a projection of school costs with and without consolidation.

“If it’s going to happen, it has to be done right,” Scally said.

The process begins with frank conversation among leaders, Paul said.

“Consolidation is the first step and for a very good reason,” he said.

Already vital to the area’s quality of life, Katahdin schools will grow in importance as massive worker retirements occur over the next few years, creating as many as 200 job openings at area mills, Paul said.

“We need to ensure that moving to Katahdin region is viewed as a smart choice for young families,” Paul said. “Everything good that we can do for our region, starting with the opportunities we can provide for our children, comes with an enhanced school system. That’s one of the best economic development tools that you can have.”

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