Letters to the Editor
Stay informed on school plan
Dear Independent,Governor Baldacci has proposed a consolidation of the Maine school districts from 152 districts to 26. For York, this would create a 17-town district of 18,000 students. The towns would be Newfield, Limerick, Waterboro, Acton, Shapleigh, Alfred, Lyman, Lebanon, Sanford, Berwick, South Berwick, Wells, Ogunquit, York, Eliot and Kittery. The proposal calls these "like-minded communities." They were chosen as a group because we share the same vocational school.
One superintendent would run this mega-district. There would be a regional school board, perhaps we would have one seat, but that is not clear. Seventeen people on one board is a large group. Our school buildings would transfer to the regional school board, our ongoing local debt not picked up by the state.
The districts are of very different sizes. Ten of the 17 are less than 5,000 students, three are more than 15,000 students and we are the second largest after Portland. This is a major change and has many ramifications for our district, for our children's' education here in York, for our home-rule charter and for our local tax dollars as we would become more of a donor town.
There are benefits to consolidation. Saying no to this idea is just as wrong as saying yes to this initial plan. The proposed district York is part of is too large and should be 3,000 to 5,000 students. Hiring a superintendent willing to take over a fledgling mega-district would be difficult. These communities are not "like-minded." The challenge will be keeping the quality of our education high and undisrupted for our main focus: our children and young adults.
This plan is new and the districts had no real advance knowledge or input. Please stay proactively informed by reading the papers, both local and statewide. Subscribe to the email list at www.yorkschools.org.
When you have something to say, contact Peter Bowman - PeterBowman@comcast.net, (287) 1515 - freshman state senator representing York, and also the chairman of the Education Committee. He is a good man and has a steep learning curve ahead of him. Contact Rep. Dawn Hill if you live west of Route 1 at RepDawn.Hill@legislature.maine.gov, (800) 423-2900 and Rep. Windol Weaver east of Route 1 at RepWindol.Weaver@legislature.maine.gov, (800) 423-2900.
The Education Committee and the Legislature will be debating this plan very soon. Much is at stake, so please stay informed.
Patty Hymanson
Chairwoman
The need for growth management
Dear Independent,The following is my response to the Portland Press Herald regarding a flawed opinion article in that newspaper in which the editor took exception to York's desire to manage its rate of growth.
Your views on growth caps (in reality they are growth management ordinances) in the Saturday Opinion section dated Dec. 8 leave some extremely faulty impressions. Contrary to what the headline reads, growth caps do solve problems, many of which are caused by the state. Further, your statement that York does not exist in a vacuum is without merit. York, as other towns in similar situations, does operate in a vacuum and that vacuum is the giant sucking sound from Augusta.
Let's examine what happens. In fiscal 2005 York's education expenditures were over $21 million. Of that, state funding contributed only 4 percent. Therefore, York taxpayers were forced to pay 96 percent. When York constructed a new addition to the high school in the early 1990s at a cost of $5 million, the state contributed only 10 percent of that total. Compare that to a $21 million Marshwood High School, built in our neighboring Eliot/Berwicks at the same time, with the state paying $20 million - yes - 95 percent, and you can see that there are serious inequities in the system by which the state sends money back to the towns. You might say, "hey York is 'richer' than Eliot and the Berwicks," but that is not the case either. At the time of both construction projects, the per-household income in Marshwood school district was virtually the same as in York!
In fiscal 2005 the average per-student cost to the York taxpayer (including debt service and after the meager 4 percent state aid) was in excess of $10,000 per year, and that does not include municipal and infrastructure costs. The average real estate taxes per home were $3600. Every new home built exacerbates this disparity. Yet the state, knowing this and providing virtually no financial help, now wants to set up its own growth rules for York and take away our Growth Management Ordinance, which has been our only effective method of being able to maintain a relatively good educational system while trying to keep pace with our infrastructure demands in the rapidly growing southern part of Maine. Even that is tenuous as we have not been able to modernize our very dated town hall, police station high school facility, etc.
As time goes by, it is inevitable that other towns will face what York is already facing - building demand that outstrips the ability to absorb costs - and those towns will be at the mercy of the state, unless local control is restored.
Contrary to your statement, zoning and well-reasoned land use ordinances do not regulate the rate of growth. They simply help eliminate sprawl, which is a vastly different problem within each community. Only local growth management can regulate the rate in which each community can grow while preserving a quality of life that attracted each of us to our communities in the first place.
So, as our representatives in Augusta deliberate and vote on LD1535, let's all remember how important it is for our own communities to maintain home rule and to let them know that once again their tentacles are reaching too far into our local issues.
Respectfully submitted,
Ted Little
York
The Independent Letters Policy: The Independent welcomes letters and opinions on any subject. We do not accept anonymous letters. Letters should be 200 words or less. We reserve the right to edit submissions for length, accuracy, and/or legal reasons and to reject any material considered unsuitable for publication. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of The Independent or its staff.
Send your letters to the Editor at PO Box 6, York, ME 03909 or via email to editor@yorkindependent.net. Deadline for publication is 12:00 noon on the Monday prior to that week's publication
