Mt. Abram English teacher Jennifer Baker addresses the school board last Thursday. Baker as well as many other representatives of the Mt. Abram Teachers Association spoke that evening. (David Hart photo) SALEM — Directors of the MSAD #58 School Board met Thursday, May 27 at which time Superintendent Quenten Clark reported the district received a letter from the Mt. Abram Teachers Association. On the agenda that evening was the opportunity for the association to be heard.

John Kosinski, UniServ Director for District 8 of the Maine Education Association was present that evening as well.

Clark told the audience that evening that he had recently been informed of a ruling by the Maine Labor Relations Board. This was a change of “business-as-usual” which Clark jokingly said was a relief.

Teacher Association Representative Sally Bean said the ruling stated in summary that a phrase called “Meet and Consult” represents a mechanism for insuring and improving the relationship between school committees and their employees.

Bean cited the ruling as follows: “The purpose of the Meet and Consult obligation is to ensure that school committees consider their employees’ comments and concerns before implementing or changing educational policy.”

Bean said the purpose of this ruling was not for employee negotiations, but rather to improve communication between school boards and employees.

Bean said the association has not utilized this mechanism in the most recent past, but said they plan on using it in the future.

“As you know I’ve been a big advocate for this for a long time,” said long-term teacher Barry London. He explained that the 14-year tradition of a meeting called the “Annual Town Meeting” brought school board members, students and staff together to get input on what’s good and what needs modification. “It’s been my perspective over the last year or so that there’s been a lot of conversation about the budget and not enough about teaching and learning.”

One of London’s key points was to ensure that board members provide a good student to teacher ratio. He said they may not be able to provide what urban districts can offer in terms of choices. But they owe it to the students to prepare them properly for the future by offering students that small school, one-on-one setting —a key that has become a primary asset to the success of the Mt. Abram experience.

London gave several references over the past three years where communication has broken down or no longer exists.

Freshman science teacher Jim Danala said that staff reductions do not meet the projected enrollments. He was referring to the recent reductions in teacher positions held by Heather Moody and Polly MacMichael; and that five teachers have been eliminated over the last four years.

“Further reduction in teacher staff will turn a short term problem into a long term inadequacy,” Danala said.

Buzz Bean spoke of how large classrooms can affect the teacher’s ability to give the necessary attention to students.

Other teachers spoke of the loss of AP classes and that students’ choice of electives is now relatively limited.

MacMichael stressed the importance of meeting Adequate Yearly Progress in two content areas, Math and English, and stressed that a bare-bones curriculum would be devastating. Moody stressed the loss of one-third of the Gifted and Talented staff which the district expensively funded to certify and she stressed the potential loss of GT funding ahead.

Jennifer Baker, Andy Theriault and others spoke or wrote on behalf of communication issues and concerns they had with the loss of staff, courses offered and larger classes.

Sally Bean addressed what she called misled perceptions of trading staff for teacher salary increases. Kosinski strongly objected to comments that were relative to the “negotiations” made by chairman Mike Pond. “I object,” Kosinski said, and insisted that further comments should be restricted and that some were factually inaccurate.

“We are hoping to have some positive influence on the current situation, and long term are looking to create a forum for proactive cooperation about issues,” Bean said.

Clark said he did not disagree with any of the comments heard that evening. He said it was not his idea to create Essential Programs and Services formulas which reduce subsidy, shift local share between towns, and are beyond his control. Other school board members backed his comments.

However there was an agreed upon understanding between the staff and directors that communication should exist in an enhanced fashion in the future.

Director Alan Morse agreed saying this was in no way intended to undermine administrators. He outlined what should be discussed and what discussions should be avoided. “From my experience, there is not a single person on this board or a single teacher that I’ve run into that would do anything that would interfere with the chain of command; myself included. I think it is important that we communicate about things that don’t involve the chain of command which includes the philosophy of education, and awareness of what’s going on in the classrooms. Anything we can do to open communications between teachers and the board to keep us aware of what teachers are doing, what students are doing, what’s happening in the schools which relates to the spirit of the community is so important,” Morse said.

Members went on to a formal procedure not usual to the board and eliminated the fulltime teacher positions Moody and MacMichael held by a vote of 8-1. This procedure, new to the board, was an attorney recommendation.