Education & the Neighborhood School
Consolidation means aches

By KEITH EDWARDS, Staff Writer

Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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GARDINER — A dramatic new approach to education in Maine is gaining traction among state leaders, and central Maine administrators are at the forefront of the debate.

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 Gov. John Baldacci has called for the consolidation of school services as a way to cut costs because state education subsidies are likely to remain flat or increase at a rate well below the expected jump in expenses.

 In preparation, both School Administrative District 11 and the Augusta School Department are considering closing schools.

 Officials of the two districts say they don't want to close schools. They know parents and students become attached to their neighborhood schools.

 "These are trying times — to think of your child's school being closed is a horrible thing," SAD 11 Board of Directors member Rebecca Fles told an agitated group of about 250 people who attended a meeting recently at Pray Street School. Pray Street is one of two elementary schools the district's architect has recommended officials consider closing. "But it does look as though consolidation may be one of the answers."

 The issue is not restricted to Maine. Other states — Kansas, Arkansas and Pennsylvania among them — are moving toward consolidated school districts as a way of saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has proposed squeezing his state's 311 school districts down to 116.

 The questions that have left SAD 11 and other school systems grasping for answers are driven by two forces: money and an inexorable decline in student enrollment.

 Because the two-year state budget deficit is expected to be $1.1 billion, state funding for education is expected to remain flat, or increase only slightly. And with costs such as teachers' salaries and health insurance increasing significantly every year, flat funding from the state means school systems have to cut budgets to provide the same level of services.

 "We wouldn't be here if the economy was in good shape," SAD 11 Superintendent Jack Mara said.

 The percentage of education costs paid by the state has decreased steadily over the years. In 1985, the state paid 50.7 percent of a typical community's cost of educating children. By 2002, that percentage had shrunken to 43.6 percent, according to the state Department of Education. As the state's share of education costs has decreased, the burden on local taxpayers has increased correspondingly.

 Officials estimate closing two of SAD 11's six elementary schools could save about $200,000 per school per year.

 "I wouldn't mind if they upped my taxes if it meant we could keep this little school that we love," said Roberta Doyle, whose daughter attends third grade at T.C. Hamlin School in Randolph, the other elementary school that could be closed in SAD 11. "My daughter gets the special attention that she needs here. She won't get that in a larger school, with larger class sizes. If they consolidate, I'm looking at taking my kid somewhere else."

 Changing school systems isn't something Doyle takes lightly. She attended the tiny school in Randolph as a child. Doyle and her daughter even had the same second-grade teacher there.

 If there were more people like Doyle — that is, people staying close to their hometowns and having children — schools might not be facing declining enrollments.

 As Baldacci noted in his inaugural speech last month, young people are moving out of state to pursue the careers they don't believe they can find in Maine. And people who are staying in Maine are not having as many children.

 A declining birthrate, in turn, leads to declining school enrollments. And population projections by the Maine State Planning Office predict enrollments will continue to decline for many Maine schools.

 Mara said enrollments are dropping at an overwhelming number of schools north of Brunswick.

 The student population of T.C. Hamlin in Randolph — 143 students — is projected to drop to 75 students by 2015.

 Overall, SAD 11's total student population is expected to drop by 350 students by 2015.

 In Augusta, too, decreasing enrollment numbers have officials looking at closing a school.

 Superintendent Cornelia Brown has recommended the Augusta Board of Education consider closing Buker School, one of Augusta's two public middle schools, and consolidate city middle school students at Hodgkins School.

 Brown said enrollment at Augusta schools has dropped by about 1,000 students since the mid-1980s.

 From 2002 to 2015, the student population of Augusta's public schools is projected to drop by about 290 students, according to State Planning Office figures.

 Brown estimated that about $800,000 could be saved each year by closing Buker. That savings, however, would come with a human price.

 "Most of that savings would come from staff reductions," Brown said. "We would save some by not having to maintain the building, but the real savings are in people."

 In addition, if the city of Augusta were to decide to sell Buker School, which sits on a potentially valuable piece of real estate just off Western Avenue, it could bring in additional revenue. Brown said, however, there may be deed restrictions that could limit what may be done with the Buker property if it were to no longer be a school.

 In SAD 54, which covers the towns of Canaan, Cornville, Mercer, Norridgewock, Skowhegan, and Smithfield, Superintendent Bruce McGray said enrollments have been dropping slowly but expressed concern they may drop more rapidly in the near future.

 Only about 50 students attend each of the district's smallest schools — the kindergarten-through-third-grade Mercer Elementary and the fourth-through-sixth-grade Smithfield Elementary School.

 McGray said there are no plans to consolidate any of SAD 54's 10 schools.

 "Just before I got here, say 14 or 15 years ago, every one of the smaller schools here had new construction work done to it," McGray said. "That and the fact we really have a shortage of space in our larger elementary schools — we have portables at just about all of them — means we haven't looked at consolidating at this point. What would happen if enrollment continued to drop over several years, we just don't know."

 SAD 54's student population is projected to drop by 515 students, to 2,351 by the year 2015.

 A recent study by Philip Trostel, an associate professor of economics at the University of Maine and a researcher with the Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy, claims Maine's schools and school districts are too small, costing taxpayers money and depriving students of learning opportunities.

 Trostel's report states the most cost-effective school districts have about 3,400 students. Only nine Maine districts are that large. The average district has 754 students. He estimates at least $40 million in state and local funds could be saved each year if schools were larger.

 "It appears savings occur in every cost category we measure," Trostel said. "Costs decrease as the number of students increases. With smaller schools there is duplication of just about everything you do —you've got multiple buildings, personnel, superintendents, counselors ..."

 Trostel said he was not surprised by his findings that larger schools save money, but he was surprised by the amount of money that could be saved.

 In 2000-2001, nearly 73 percent of local property tax revenue in Maine was used to pay for K-12 education. Therefore, Trostel's report states, if education costs can be reduced by 10 percent, it would result in a roughly 7 percent reduction in local property taxes. That, in turn, could translate into savings of about $110 per year for the owner of a $100,000 property.

 Jean Gulliver, chairwoman of the state Board of Education, said the board must look closely at population trends as it decides what proposed new school construction projects it will fund.

 "We feel it's our responsibility, with limited resources, to use those resources wisely," Gulliver said. "When we build a school building, we're building it for 50 years from now."

 "The most important issue for us is programming for kids. If the best program can be achieved through closings and redistribution of funds, that's what we should do."

 For parents, maintaining neighborhood schools is about more than money.

 Jan Moore of Gardiner said her 7-year-old wakes up in the middle of the night because of bad dreams about having to change schools. She urged school officials to keep the best interests of children in mind as they decide how to handle budget shortfalls.

 And Stephanie Duncan, mother of a first-grader and fourth-grader at Hamlin School, said closing the school — the only school in Randolph — may save money but could come at a greater cost.

 "I'd hate to lose the sense of community we have at that school," she said. "I'm not sure the options they're giving are all the options that are out there. I'm worried they're just looking at the bottom line."

Keith Edwards — 621-5647

 kedwards@centralmaine.com

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