Letters to the Editor
York soldier offers thanks
Dear Independent,I would like to personally thank Mr. Richard Filliettaz of VFW Post 6977 and other members for their continued support of myself and other members of my unit since we deployed to Afghanistan 11 months ago. They have made so many here, not just soldiers but local nationals as well, feel loved and cared about. They went out of their way even to send what seemed like endless boxes of clothes, food, shoes, blankets, etc., for a local national family of burn victims who lost everything, including their homes.
There are nowhere near enough people in this world like Mr. Richard Filliettaz and the other members of VFW Post 6977. Thank you so much for all of your incredible kindness you share with all you meet!
Thank you from everyone, as well, from 710th Alpha Company 10th Mountain Division.
Sincerely,
Spc. Robyn Rothermel
York, writing from Afghanistan
LSRS is the wrong plan
Dear Independent,Clearly the time has come for Maine schools to look at some sort of consolidation efforts in light of the statewide student enrollment declines and desire to reduce overall property tax costs. However, Gov. Baldacci's one-size-fits all solution unveiled by him on Jan. 5 is just too dramatic a structural change for Maine to embrace, especially within the dizzyingly short timeframe the governor has established. It does not take into consideration the needs of many different districts and communities.
The governor's regionalization plan, called LSRS (Local Schools, Regional Support), is embedded into his proposed fiscal 2008 budget and is not being considered as a separate educational policy plan. Therefore, Maine citizens will not have an individual vote on this proposed consolidation. Only the Maine Legislature will be voting on authorizing its passage. This means all decisions regarding this educational regionalization must be hammered out and passed within a few short months in order for the proposed state budget to pass and go into effect by July 1, 2007.
For me, having Maine's educational system change this drastically without putting the vote out to the individual people of this state seems simply un-democratic.
Any consolidation plan should include the voice of the people who are in the best position to make decisions about the most appropriate and cost-effective means of providing educational services to our students. This means hearing the voices of the people closest to the classroom - the local citizenry, the school community, parents, school volunteers and mentors and the locally elected school boards.
There are several aspects of Gov. Baldacci's consolidation proposal that have caused concern, but perhaps none so much as the rapid speed by which the generations-old local school board model is to be cast aside in favor of super-sized regional school districts with which the state has no experience.
We must remember that larger bureaucracies typically can result in less accountability, rather than more. It only makes sense that the larger the school district, the more complicated the budget. Remember, we are not saying that some district consolidation doesn't make sense, but Maine citizens and their locally elected officials should have some say in what that model looks like and which communities we decide to consolidate with.
Undermining our town's buildings. It appears that the governor's plan has not been properly thought out with respect to existing school obligations and liabilities. Largely, we have built our four schools with local York property tax money that did not come from the state. Under the governor's plan, it appears that all school property now owned by Maine towns, municipalities, SADs and CSDs will have to be turned over to the new super regional districts at their request. The proposed legislation states explicitly that a new region "is not required to assume the outstanding indebtedness of a school…in its region." Apparently, the state would take the schools but not our debt.
Let's look at the numbers this way. The replacement costs of our school buildings and central office currently stand at $42 million dollars. This figure does not include the land. The principal remaining on our bonds from all of our schools remains today about $16,485,000. Interest: $5,768,042. Total P & I: $22,253,042. Therefore, under the governor's LSRS plan, the taxpayers of York would still be responsible for this local debt and additionally, we would also take over a share of the state debt relating to other school construction within this super district of 17 schools.
This plan undermines our local control. Under the governor's plan, our York Home Rule Charter essentially becomes null and void. Regional boards must have a minimum of five members and a maximum of 15. Since the proposed District 26/Sanford super district will be made of 17 communities, will York be one of the two communities who will not have a voting member? New regional board members will begin to be elected this October. The York School Committee will cease to exist as of July 1, 2008, and all specific budgetary decisions would then be transferred to the District 26 board.
For York residents, this new budgeting process would be quite different than the one we have been using for many years under the Home Rule Charter. Most likely, the voters of York will essentially see one overall educational budget number to vote on, not the current line-item review and format.
Furthermore, if the 17 individual communities cannot come to a consensus during their individual local district vote, the Regional board can impose the budget number they originally offered. This happens in the event the towns cannot reach a majority decision on a budget number by July 1.
Undermining our economic health. We believe York will most likely be the highest contributor to this super district in the same way we are the highest contributor by far to the York County coffers. For example, under the county model, York pays for sheriffs in small towns who choose to not incur the expenditure for a local police force. Under this current county model, York contributes a major share of the funding for a minimum return in services. Under the Governor's Education Regionalization plan, York will be paying for other schools but we will not be given back enough to maintain the quality of our school system.
We potentially could have a mediocre school system with larger class sizes, fewer course offerings and co-curricular offerings all while having to shoulder a larger relative cost of education for other towns. York essentially becomes a donor town to a larger district. We will essentially pay more for less quality education.
The governor's goal may be to provide property tax relief, by reducing educational costs, but this plan does not spell out specifically what the overall property tax savings will be for York. When Commissioner Susan Gendron was asked specifically by Selectman Bardwell at the meeting held recently at Noble High School, how much property tax savings York would expect to see, the commissioner said that she did not know what that amount would be and had no such numbers available.
The York School Committee thanks the Board of Selectmen for their support in opposing the governor's plan. They are an indispensable link in helping us get the word out to the residents of York about the potential impact this proposal has on our community. It is critical that we have the support of the municipality, but more importantly we need to know if we have the support of our citizenry.
As residents of York, we need for your voices to be heard by our local representatives, as they will play a critical role in this regionalization discussion. Please contact them at RepDawn.Hill@legislature.maine.gov, 363-7594 or 337-3689; PeterBowman@comcast.net or 439-6481; RepWindol.Weaver@legislature.maine.gov or 363-4641.
Additionally, please go to Yorkschools.org and click on link at the bottom of the opening page, Local Schools, Regional Support for information regarding Gov. Baldacci's plan and other pertinent information.
What does regionalization mean for York? In a nutshell, School District comprised of 17 towns, part of a school district of 18,000 students, eliminates York School Committee, York perhaps gets one vote on a 15-member regional school board, transfer of school facilities to Regional School Board, reduces teaching positions, increases class sizes significantly, increase expectation of principals in an environment of few qualified principal candidates, impacts curriculum and instruction. Nowhere in this discussion has there been an acknowledgement of the potential academic cost to students.
Please help your family, neighbors and friends become educated about this regionalization plan as it potentially can change the face of education in York and our state for generations to come.
Thank you,
Marilyn S. Zotos
Vice-Chairwoman
York School Committee
Thank You from York Rotary
Dear Independent,On behalf of the York Rotary Club, I would like to thank all those who helped make this year's Toys for Tots Program a resounding success.
The generosity of the York community and its wonderful outpouring of support meant that dozens of families in the York area were able to have a Merry Christmas. Not only were we able to meet the needs of our own community, but we collected enough toys to assist the Salvation Army in Rochester, N.H., who were in desperate need of toys for the needy families they were serving.
The Toys for Tots program can be successful only through the generosity of the many businesses and organizations that allow us to place collection boxes at their locations. Therefore we'd like to recognize and thank the following businesses and organizations who participated with us in this year's Toys for Tots Program: Atlantic Storage, Berger's Bike Shop, Curves, Caldwell Banker, Coastal Ridge Elementary School, York Village Elementary School, York High School, Eldredge Lumber, Fazio's, Kennebunk Savings Bank, Maine Turnpike Authority, Norma's Restaurant, Ocean National Bank, RE/Max Realty, Rick's Restaurant, Stop 'n Go Video, York Police Department, York County Federal Credit Union, York Town Hall, The Independent, York Animal Hospital, York Fitness and York Beach Fire Department.
Special thanks also goes out to a few other organizations who assisted us with this project: Eldredge Lumber for providing us the space to store and package the many toys we collected; to the American Legion Post 56 and its volunteers who helped us collect and package toys; to the York High School Interact Club, who was instrumental in collecting gifts for teenagers, and finally to Boy Scout Troop 301 and Scoutmaster Bert Henson, who built the Toys for Tots float in this year's Festival of Lights Parade and also picked up toys at several locations.
As you can see, there were many people involved in this worthy project and we are indebted to all of them. Thank you all very much, and we'll see you again next Christmas!
Ray Bald
President
York Rotary Club
Miller thanks voters
Dear Independent,York voters should appreciate hearing that the drainage they voted for in the 2006 May Warrant, to alleviate the flooding on my property and a neighboring property, was recently completed. There are two parts to the Pine Hill Road South drainage project. Part One, which was just completed, is the installment of drainage pipes in the York Land Trust right-of-way of their Thornburgh Easement. Part Two will consist of catch basins and pipes in the road, which will be completed this summer.
I am grateful to the York voters for recognizing this problem and supporting this project. I also thank (not necessarily in order of importance) the following people and/or organizations for supporting me through seven years of struggle: Mr. Paul Mann, The (York) Independent, Sen. Mary Black Andrews, the past two York Boards of Selectmen; particularly Mr. Torbert Macdonald, Mr. Mark Badger (former York CEO), Mr. Dwight Bardwell, Town Manager Mr. Robert Yandow, Mr. William Bray, Mrs. Evelyne Neill, The York Weekly, The Portsmouth Herald, Ms. Helen Rollins Lord, Ms. Cindy Ayn Douglass, Mr. Gerry Corradino, Mrs. Bonnie Gottwik, Mrs. Valerie Doran, Mr. & Mrs. Wayne Martin, Mrs. Mary Wellwood, Mr. Clayton Abbott, Andrews Construction of Kittery and former Interim Town Manager Mr. Ryan Hada.
The fill, which caused the damming of water on my land, was dumped into a 'Protected Easement' right of way. … Had it not been for the persons mentioned above and the voting taxpayers of York, my land (of 58 years) would still be ruined.
Again, I want to especially thank Sen. Mary Black Andrews for her work to establish LD 816, a new law which now protects all Maine property owners from the destructive flood damage I was forced to endure.
Audrey Miller
Cape Neddick
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