As you are most likely aware, the issue of school consolidation of Central Office Services is alive and well. As of this writing, 34 Regional School Units have been approved without the need to go to public vote.

Essentially, these 34 are single municipalities or Maine School Administrative Districts that exceed the 1,200 student population minimum. As such, all they need do to receive State approval as an RSU is to comply with the new school budget method adopted by the 2007-2008 legislature.

Seventeen more possible RSUs were voted upon on Election Day November 4.

The municipalities making up Maine School Union #37 will not be among the 17 as we remain in the planning process.

Currently, the six MSU #37 municipalities are meeting weekly with MSAD #44 (Bethel area) and the towns of Upton and Gilead to put together a plan to form an RSU.

As of this writing, three such meetings have been held and four more are anticipated. We have a deadline of Dec. 1, 2008 for submission to school attorneys to check to see if the plan is legally worded and a deadline of Dec. 15, 2008 to present the plan to Maine's Commissioner of Education for her approval.

The plan being worked on consists of 13 sections:

1. The towns that will make up the RSU

2. The size and composition of the RSU Board of Education

3. The method of voting on the RSU Board

4. The composition, powers and duties of any local school committees to be created

5. The disposition of real and personal school property

6. The disposition of existing school indebtedness and lease purchase obligations

7. The assignment of school personnel contracts, school collective bargaining agreements, and other school contractual obligations

8. The disposition of existing school funds and financial obligations

9. A transition plan that addresses the development of the first school year of the RSU and interim personnel policies

10. Documentation of public meetings held to prepare or review the Reorganization Plan

11. An explanation of how municipalities that approve the reorganization plan will proceed if one or more of the proposed members of the RSU fail to approve the plan

12. An estimate of cost savings to be achieved by the formation of an RSU and how these savings will be achieved

13. Such other matters as the governing bodies of the school administrative units in existence on the effective date of the reorganization law (MSU #37 and MSAD #44) may determine to be necessary

13.1 Plans to reorganize central office administration, transportation, building and maintenance, and special education

13.2 Cost Sharing of additional local allocation in the RSU

13.3 Election of the initial RUS Board of Education

13.4 Tuition Contracts and School Choice

13.5 Claims and insurance

As of this writing, the group working on this plan has reached agreement on numbers "1," "2," "3," "5," "9" and "11" of the above 13.

Once the entire plan is in draft form, it will be presented to the MSU #37 board members. The plan will then be presented to the taxpayers in each of the six municipalities that make up MSU #37 during the month of December and into early January 2009.

After the public meetings and the receipt of approval of the plan from the Commissioner of Education, the plan will go to the voters for their approval or rejection. In MSU #37, each municipality will vote separately, although on the same day. Towns in MSAD #44 will vote as a block on that same day. This vote will occur in late January 2009.

If the plan passes, the RSU will be formed. If the plan does not pass, then we here in Union #37 are back to step one, and all MSU #37 municipalities will face financial penalties until such time as we form an RSU (all this will be discussed at the public meetings).

In closing, I would remind taxpayers in MSU #37 municipalities that the decision as to whether or not to accept the proposed RSU plan is in their hands. As such, I would urge taxpayers to watch for the date when the public meeting on the RSU plan will be held in their community and to be in attendance in order that they be able to vote on the plan with sufficient knowledge of such.