By ELBERT AULL
MaineToday Media, Inc. Thursday, January 25, 2007

Baldacci and state education commissioner Susan Gendron took heat for nearly two hours from skeptical teachers, school board members and parents. They lambasted his idea to reduce the number of school districts statewide from 290 to 26 by next year, calling it too extreme, too soon.

"Eighteen months is not enough time, and 26 school systems is too few," said Jim Morse, superintendent of School Administrative District 47 in Oakland.

Wednesday's forum at Lewiston Middle School was the first in a series of town-hall style meetings across Maine that Baldacci and Gendron plan to use to sell their idea to eliminate administrative positions across the state. The proposal, which primarily targets superintendents and their office staffs, is being presented as a cost-cutting move designed to address widespread anger about the state's tax burden.

Gendron said before the meeting that loss of local control has been a chief fear among skeptics. She was proven correct during a lengthy question-and-answer session as more than a dozen educators and school board members, mostly from central Maine, criticized the consolidation plan.

Their comments, and the tone of their questions, indicated they were almost uniformly opposed to the plan.

Educators questioned the effectiveness of the local advisory councils included in the proposal. Those panels would act as intermediaries between parents and principals and their regional board of directors.

"They don't have any control or authority," said Mark Hatch, principal of Messalonskee Middle School in Oakland.

Educators questioned the amount of savings -- roughly $250 million over three years -- claimed by Baldacci.

Baldacci and Gendron said the savings estimates are conservative, based on similar realignments recently instituted in New Jersey and New York.

One of the harshest critics of the plan was James Handy, a former legislator and current Lewiston School Committee member.

Handy, holding a laptop in the palm of one hand and gesturing with another, asked why Baldacci didn't provide details of the proposed consolidation during his re-election campaign last year. He questioned why some of the savings under the proposal would be redirected to the school laptop program, acknowledging the humor in his reading the questions off the screen of his laptop.

"This will either be your legacy, or the albatross around the neck of all of us," said Handy, who pressed Baldacci for more than 10 minutes and had to be cut off by other audience members.

Baldacci said the proposed increase in laptop funding is a separate item in his budget request that could be amended. He said he was clear about his support for consolidation of some sort in debates that led up to November's election, noting the idea was tossed around by groups that opposed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights initiative. Baldacci repeatedly stressed to a hostile crowd the need to do something about the state spending issue that triggered the TABOR initiative.

"Studies? Gotta get away from studies. Gotta get away from delays. ... Our people are demanding action," he said.

The Lewiston meeting took place in the district of state Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, who backs one of a handful of competing consolidation measures to be considered this legislative session.

Rotundo, who introduced Baldacci, announced a separate public forum on her proposal, which would reduce the number of districts to 65. Her plan would establish 65 districts that would serve 3,000-4,000 students each, and save approximately $82 million over five years.

She said the State Education Board brought the report that led to her bill to educators, who recommended the 65 districts.

"There's been public input," Rotundo said.

The forum on Rotundo's proposal is scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 6 at Lewiston Middle School.