Issues
Schools

Draft of options for Town Hearing on Jan 4, 2007

Information Resources

• 06/09/06: Revised information from Withdrawal Committee (after Commissioner Gendron)

• 06/03/29 executive summary of Harpswell's withdrawal proposal
  on Town website

• 06/03/29 Complete Proposal for withdrawal
  on Town website

• 06/01 Search the Maine Statutes

• 06/01 Maine Department of Education

• 06/01 Packet given out by Town of Harpswell (incomplete)

• 06/01 Report by the Committee on Educational Arrangements (1993)
  This is an earlier report concerning withdrawal from MSAD 75 in the 1990's. I scanned it from a copy I picked up at the town office. Although I read it, I do not guarantee it's accuracy.
  HTML Version
  PDF Version

• 06/01 Maine Department Of Education: Steps To Be Followed In The Withdrawal Process
  This a more detailed discussion of the withdrawal process from the DOE provided by the Superintendent.
  Original Text version

• 06/01 Maine Department Of Education Required Elements Of A Withdrawal Agreement
  This a more detailed discussion of the required elements for an agreement from the DOE provided by the Superintendent. This is organized differently from the handout at the hearing as this has only 9 elements.
  PDF format
  Original Text format

• 06/01 MSAD No. 75 Foundations Informational Newsletter ,
  Some questions and Answers about withdrawal from desk of Mike Wilhelm

Other Links

• 06/01 History and Final Disposition of LD 1725 -- SP0602
  "An Act to Allow the Towns of Wells and Ogunquit to Withdraw from Their Community School District."
  Not much to read but interesting that it exists

• 06/01 Bangor Publishing Company
  "There are some people in Charleston who are very upset about this," Dirnbauer said. He believed, however, that over time the district will get the support of residents in that community. District and Charleston officials will be meeting with state education officials next week to discuss the town's withdrawal application, he said.

• 06/01 News, Maine Townsman, August-September 2004
  East Machias:  At a July special election, residents here voted overwhelmingly, 130-10, to support the selectmen’s recommendation that the town withdraw from SAD 77.   The next step for the town residents will be to bring their wishes to the Commissioner of Education.  East Machias selectmen and school board members contend that they are paying an inappropriate share of the SAD 77 budget. (This is all it says.)

• 06/01 Liberty votes $0 for SAD 3 withdrawal plan - Walter Griffin
  Interesting article about Liberty's efforts to withdraw from SAD 3

• 06/01 Webb estate to be auctioned to make good for 1996 embezzlement conviction -
  East Machias is voting to leave the district which would take away from the share of the estate going to repay the district.

• 06/01 Bangor Publishing Company
  News article about Lowell withdrawing from SAD 31

• 06/01 Withdrawal Agreement - SAD #6 (3-27-01)
  Frye Island's Withdrawal agreement to leave MSAD 6

• 06/01 EAGLE LAKE et al. v. COMMISSIONER, et al.
  Court Case where Eagle Lake et al wanted to wanted to withdraw, but thought they only had to present a proposal for discussion , not a negotiated agreement, with the district

• 06/11 Withdrawal entering new stage of inquiry
  08/09/99 West Bath

News
All of  these Times Record articles should be at their permanent site as of10/22/06; except the first one

• 03/30/07: Harpswell might get less from the state
  HARPSWELL — School Administrative District 75 Superintendent J. Michael Wilhelm told selectmen Thursday night that one of two funding scenarios released by the Department of Education Tuesday could wipe out about $886,000 in state funding to educate the town's special education students and disregard a law Harpswell fought hard to pass last year.
  "Whatever is happening in Augusta now is a mystery to virtually everyone," Wilhelm said, explaining that two funding scenarios proposed for special education reimbursement to Harpswell range from $1,173,000 to $153,449.

• 03/19/07: The Times Record's News: Harpswell takes step toward hiring State House lobbyist
  Selectman James Henderson was officially welcomed to the board at Thursday night's meeting, his first since Saturday's election and annual town meeting.
  Much of the Board of Selectmen's ambitious agenda for Thursday was tabled, however, due to the absence of Selectwoman Amy Haible, whose mother is ill.
  Still, Selectman Sam Alexander welcomed Henderson, telling him, "I hope we have a long, productive relationship."

• 03/12/07: The Times Record's News: Harpswell voters end quest to quit SAD 75
  Forsaking the first warm, sunny day in recent memory, Harpswellians turned out in droves Saturday to decide that the time has indeed come to terminate the effort to withdraw from School Administrative District 75, and that proposed land-use ordinances resulted in an unacceptable land grab.
  Only a few had gathered at Harpswell Islands School by 9 a.m., when 10 votes determined that John F. Loyd Jr. would serve as moderator for this year's meeting. Surrounded by poster-board charts of sit-up and push-up records in the school gymnasium, Loyd convened the business meeting just after 10 a.m., as residents clad in muddy L.L. Bean boots and Talbots sweaters began to crowd the bleachers and metal chairs, many pulling out supplies and knitting in anticipation of a day-long deliberation.

• 01/26/07: The Times Record's News: SAD 75 board members find devils in school reform details
   TOPSHAM — Members of the School Administrative District 75 board of directors spouted off to their local legislators Thursday about the governor's plan for educational administration consolidation. Like school board members throughout the state, the SAD 75 directors criticized what they said is a lack of detail or analysis of cost and savings estimates and assumptions within the plan.
  The school reform package announced by Gov. John Baldacci on Jan. 5 is just one of several consolidation plans, said Senate President Beth Edmonds, D-Freeport, who attended the meeting with other state lawmakers who represent the district's four towns, Harpswell, Topsham, Bowdoin and Bowdoinham.

• 10/19/06 The Times Record News: Harpswell preserves SAD 75 exit option
    HARPSWELL - In a letter Tuesday to Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron on behalf of the Board of Selectmen, Town Administrator Kristi Eiane has requested an extension of a 90-day deadline for completion of negotiations about Harpswell's proposed withdrawal from School Administrative District 75.
    "The Board of Selectmen is considering a range of options, including the formation of a new withdrawal committee, and how to respond to a citizen-initiated petition that calls for termination of the withdrawal process," Eiane wrote in the letter, which resulted from Tuesday's executive session of the Board of Selectmen, the second in which selectmen met with legal counsel to determine their options in light of the Sept. 28 resignation of the entire committee formed to negotiate Harpswell's withdrawal from SAD 75.

• 10/06/06 The Times Record's Opinion: Consolidate SAD 75 with Brunswick
    By C.V. Noyes
    I write out of frustration. I live and pay taxes in Harpswell. I have no school children in my family. I voted to proceed with the withdrawal negotiations to see where they might lead. Nowhere.
    Now, with nothing pending, I present the suggestion I offered to the governor last March: to consolidate SAD 75 with Brunswick, noting while such an action would unlikely be initiated by either party, the state might provide that catalyst as it did with the initial formation of SAD 75. His response was to send my suggestion to the Commissioner of Education Susan Gendron for her consideration and response. To date, I have heard nothing from her.

• 10/06/06 The Times Record's Opinion: SAD 75 committee refutes 'bad faith' claim
    On Sept. 28, when announcing his resignation as the public member of the Harpswell Withdrawal Committee, Gordon Weil made a number of false statements about the SAD 75 Withdrawal Negotiations Committee that were reported in The Times Record on Sept. 29. As members of this committee, we need to set the record straight.
  Mr. Weil claimed that SAD 75, and its bargaining team, acted "in bad faith." This is a baseless claim. This spring, we met four times with Mr. Weil's committee for withdrawal negotiations. We were prepared to continue these negotiations, but in June the Harpswell Withdrawal Committee declared that we were deadlocked, and that it did not want to continue negotiations. Instead, it presented a withdrawal proposal to the commissioner of education in Augusta.

• 10/04/06 The Times Record's News: Selectmen accept exit team's mass resignation
    HARPSWELL - At Tuesday morning's administrative meeting, the Board of Selectmen quickly went into executive session to discuss their roles and responsibilities in light of last week's resignation of the entire committee formed to negotiate Harpswell's withdrawal from SAD 75.
    Town Administrator Kristi Eiane said Tuesday that the committee emerged about a half-hour later after conferring with legal counsel by phone, and voted in open session to accept the resignations of Gordon Weil, Lee Theberge and Sam Alexander, who is also a selectman, from the withdrawal committee. Dee Carrier, the fourth committee member who resigned last week, was not appointed by the Harpswell Board of Selectmen.

• 9/29/06 The Times Record's Opinion: Bad time to end negotiations with SAD 75
    It's the only way Harpswell can stop subsidizing education costs in other towns
  By Craig Stephens
    Now is a good time to take stock of Harpswell's efforts to re-establish fair educational funding and a bad time to end negotiations with SAD 75.
  Three years ago the state imposed new education funding rules. SAD 75 used to charge all four towns about the same amount per student, but this year Harpswell is charged 23 percent more than the other three district towns — more than $13,000 per student compared to less than $10,500 per student. The district-wide average cost is just under $11,100, so Harpswell's subsidy of $2,025 per student reduces charges to Topsham, Bowdoin and Bowdoinham by $600 per student.

• 9/29/06 The Times Record's News: Entire Harpswell exit team quits
    HARPSWELL - Citing a lack of participation by Education Commissioner Susan Gendron and decisions by School Administrative District 75 representatives that show "the ultimate in bad faith," all four members of the Harpswell committee formed to negotiate the town's withdrawal from the school district resigned Thursday night at a meeting of the Board of Selectmen.
    Each of the four spoke during the public comment period, beginning with committee chairman Gordon Weil, who said he resigned because he believes the withdrawal process has no reasonable chance for success. Of several reasons Weil cited, first on the list was his belief that "the SAD 75 board of directors and negotiating committee have not been bargaining in good faith and will not do so."

• 9/27/06 The Times Record's News: Harpswell residents question exit panel
    09/27/2006 HARPSWELL — A public information session held by the committee formed to negotiate Harpswell's withdrawal from School Administrative District 75 drew less than a full house to Harpswell Islands School on Tuesday.
    Invitations to selectmen and school board members from Bowdoin, Bowdoinham and Topsham, as well as to SAD 75 Superintendent J. Michael Wilhelm and to Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron, went unanswered except by Donald Russell and Bob Hill, school board members from Topsham.

• 9/26/06 The Times Record News: Withdrawal team takes its case to the public today
  HARPSWELL - The committee formed to negotiate the town's withdrawal from School Administrative District 75 will hold a public informational session at 7 p.m. today at Harpswell Islands School, 308 Harpswell Islands Road.
    Gordon Weil, chairman of the withdrawal committee, said this morning that the meeting will allow the committee to answer questions and take comments about the withdrawal process.
    "There were issues raised that we don't know enough about what was going on, and some questions about the substance of the negotiations," Weil said. "Obviously, a number of people in town are not feeling that they had full or updated information."

• *09/22/2006 The Times Record's News: Selectwomen: No more cash for exit talks
  HARPSWELL — At a special meeting of the Board of Selectmen Thursday afternoon, Selectwomen Amy Haible and Katherine Chatterjee expressed dissatisfaction with the direction taken by the committee formed to negotiate withdrawal from School Administrative District 75.
    Each said that she would not appropriate additional funds for the effort if asked by the withdrawal committee.

• *09/21/2006 The Times Record's News: Stalled exit talks stir Harpswell
  Selectmen meet today on their role; withdrawal panel seeks meeting with others
  HARPSWELL — The committee formed to negotiate Harpswell's withdrawal from School Administrative District 75 wants to invite representatives from the district's three other towns to a public information session about its withdrawal efforts.
    But before invitations go out to representatives of Topsham, Bowdoin and Bowdoinham — the other three towns in SAD 75 — the Harpswell Board of Selectmen has scheduled a special meeting with the town attorney this afternoon to discuss their role in the withdrawal negotiation process.

• *09/15/2006 The Times Record's News: Call for mediator remains a sticking point
  BOWDOIN - The School Administrative District 75 board of directors met in executive session with their attorney Thursday at Bowdoin Central School to discuss the most recent proposal from Harpswell to withdraw from the four-town school district.
    The private session lasted nearly an hour before the doors of the cafeteria room opened. School Board member Dee Carrier, the board member on the Harpswell withdrawal committee, waited outside the doors with other members of the audience. She later abstained from the forthcoming recommendation of the board.

• *09/12/2006 The Times Record's News: Harpswell: Do we need a mediator?
   HARPSWELL — The committee formed to negotiate Harpswell's withdrawal from School Administrative District 75 met Monday afternoon to determine how to proceed after Superintendent J. Michael Wilhelm confirmed last week that the SAD 75 withdrawal negotiating committee will not meet without the participation of a mediator.
    In its most recent proposal, the Harpswell withdrawal committee suggested that negotiations resume without the participation of any mediator. Last week, Joanne Rogers, chairwoman of the SAD 75 withdrawal committee, said they intend to have counsel present at all negotiating meetings and want mediators to be involved in all talks.

• *9/6/06 The Times Record News: SAD 75 cool to latest exit offer
  Harpswell submits new proposal; parties differ on involvement of mediators
  HARPSWELL — Buoyed by cost estimates from the state, the committee formed to negotiate Harpswell's withdrawal from School Administrative District 75 mailed a new proposal to the district on Saturday.

• *8/29/06 The Times Record News: New questions arise in exit talks
  HARPSWELL — As the committee formed to negotiate Harpswell's withdrawal from School Administrative District 75 updated selectmen Monday on the status of those talks, a resident explored the possibility of circulating a petition that calls for an end to the withdrawal process

• *8/4/06 Public comment sets off sparks at Harpswell meeting
  HARPSWELL - Thursday evening's meeting of the Board of Selectmen drew only a handful of community members, but those who attended were there to be heard.

• *8/2/06 Harpswell, SAD 75 sent to mediation
  Gendron rejects town's withdrawal proposal, orders new talks

• 6/28/06 Maine's school funding formula doesn't work
  Maine's latest school funding formula provides state dollars to local school districts based on an allocation model called Essential Programs and Services, or EPS. Some consider it nothing but a scheme to avoid state funding of local education at the hoped-for and promised 55 percent level.

• 6/13/06 The Times Record's News: Residents weigh in on Harpswell exit plan
  HARPSWELL - A second public meeting on Harpswell's proposal to leave School Administrative District 75 generated more debate over withdrawing from than district the town shares with Bowdoin, Bowdoinham and Topsham than questions about the withdrawal proposal itself.

• 6/9/06 The Times Record's News: SAD 75 lists objections to Harpswell exit plan
  TOPSHAM — School Administrative District 75's four-member withdrawal negotiating team today sent a letter to Education Commissioner Susan Gendron in response to a withdrawal plan submitted by Harpswell — the member town withdrawing from the school district it shares with Topsham, Bowdoin and Bowdoinham.

• 6/5/06 The Times Record's News: Harpswell touts exit plan
  HARPSWELL — When Education Commissioner Susan Gendron weighs in on teetering negotiations between Harpswell and School Administrative District 75, the withdrawing town's committee to negotiate withdrawal will have fronted a different roster and allowed residents to influence its game plan.

• 6/6/06 The Times Record's News: SAD 75 wants talks to continue
  Officials with School Administrative District 75 sharply criticized Harpswell on Monday, saying the town acted "prematurely" when it abandoned negotiations and asked the state to approve the town's plan to leave the four-town school district.

• 6/5/06 The Times Record's News: State gets exit plan
  Harpswell sends its withdrawal proposal to Gendron; SAD 75 claims plan is invalid.

• 6/1/06 The Times Record's News: Talks hinge on operation of Harpswell schools
  Withdrawal teams spar on whether to negotiate for control of town's 2 elementary schools
  HARPSWELL - It was an ominous sign for Tuesday's negotiations between School Administrative District 75 and its would-be seceder Harpswell when the two sides started the meeting by failing to agree on what they disagreed about at the last meeting.

• 5/15/06 The Times Record's Opinion
  Where are the cost-saving numbers? I picked up a local Harpswell paper the other day and thumbed through the must-read section concerning the SAD 75 update. Headlines read, "Negotiations have begun between Harpswell and SAD 75!" Although all options should be considered and multiple avenues explored, I would hope that the people of the town of Harpswell would have a worst-case scenario set of figures before they head down the road to the polls.

• 5/24/06 Stalemate continues
  Harpswell, SAD 75 remain far apart on terms for town's withdrawal from school district

• 5/8/06 Details snag SAD 75 withdrawal talks
  HARPSWELL - While they can agree that they disagree, committees representing School Administrative District 75 and Harpswell in that town's ongoing negotiations to withdraw from the district failed to reach consensus on much else during their second face-to-face meeting Thursday night.

• 4/25/06 No progress in SAD 75-Harpswell talks
  TOPSHAM — It was as if they were speaking foreign languages without an interpreter.
  The Harpswell and School Administrative District 75 negotiating committees on Monday held their first face-to-face meeting since Harpswell residents voted on Jan. 28 to withdraw from the school district shared with Topsham, Bowdoinham and Bowdoin.

• 4/20/2006 Selectmen relieved talks will be 'open'
  TOPSHAM - Selectmen were relieved to hear at Thursday's school board meeting that negotiations are expected to happen in open sessions between School Administrative District 75 and Harpswell over Harpswell's withdrawal.

• 4/17/06 Town to SAD 75: It's time to talk
  Open negotiations between School Administrative District 75 and its would-be abdicator, Harpswell, might begin next week, with the first session tentatively scheduled for April 24.

• 4/14/06 SAD 75 board says 'no' to initial Harpswell proposal
  TOPSHAM — The School Administrative District 75 school board issued a failing grade to Harpswell's first proposal to withdraw from the district it shares with Topsham, Bowdoin and Bowdoinham.

• 4/12/2006 Harpswell hears plan to leave SAD 75
  HARPSWELL — A proposal to have Harpswell withdraw from School Administrative District 75 would not lead to any changes in the day-to-day education of the town's 583 students, according to members of the Withdrawal Committee.

• 03/24/2006 Harpswell submits withdrawal plan
  SAD 75 board stays mum on proposal, until its members have had opportunity to review it.
  HARPSWELL — "Keep the district inside Harpswell, but Harpswell out of the district," seems to be the premise of the withdrawal proposal released Thursday afternoon by the town committee to negotiate terms for leaving School Administrative District 75.

• 03/27/2006 SAD 75 officials offer insights on drop-outs
  TOPSHAM - As the committee it created to deal with Harpswell's study whether to withdraw from the school district set Tuesday as the day it would take its first look at Harpswell's withdrawal proposal, the Board of Directors for School Administrative District 75 met Thursday to conduct other business.

• 03/27/2006 Special education bill moves forward
    Sen. Art Mayo's LD 1953 would increase funding for Harpswell, other towns with high property values.

• 06/01 Harpswell inequity issue dominates discussion
  12/21/2005

• 06/01 Petition set to be delivered Thursday
  12/07/2005

• 06/01 Harpswell petition seeks withdrawal from SAD 75
  11/18/2005

• 06/01 Selectmen urge Harpswell to quit SAD 75
  11/11/2005

• 06/01 SAD 75 cost-sharing panel gives up
  10/27/2005

• 06/01 SAD 75 panel to meet again on cost-sharing
  10/26/2005

• 06/01 Talks begin on SAD 75 cost-sharing
  08/11/2005

• 06/01 SAD 75 to review aid formula
  06/27/2005

• 06/01 Harpswell sends shot across SAD 75's bow
  06/16/2005

• 06/01 Leave SAD 75, or stay-
  06/13/2005

• 06/01 Harpswell cries foul on school funding
  05/17/2005

• 06/01 Voters to decide $32.2 million SAD 75 budget
  06/07/2004

• 06/01 SAD 75 funding formula debated
  02/25/2004

• 06/01 SAD 75 towns to review funding formula
  02/03/2004

• 06/01 General Purpose Aid to Schools break down
  10/31/2003

• 06/01 SAD 75 approves $30.7M budget
  04/14/2003

• 06/01 SAD 75 budget cut by $500K
  04/08/2003

• 06/01 SAD 75 budget OK'd
  06/12/2002

• 06/01 Mt. Ararat crowding to require extra funds
  04/03/2002

• 06/01 SAD 75 wins big in education aid
  03/26/2002

• 06/01 SAD 75 OKs $28.7M budget
  06/13/2001

• 06/01 The Times Record's Online News Archives
  For more related articles go to this section and search the "news" section for "SAD 75." There is a very impressive list.