In a 45-minute meeting with the Appropriations Committee, Gendron said two aspects of the law have created "barriers" to consolidation in a few districts, by raising the specter of property-tax increases or cuts in state aid. David Connerty- Marin, a spokesman for Gendron, said later the state Department of Education is searching for solutions.
Gendron told lawmakers the law is working well overall because about 80 percent of the state's 290 school districts submitted plans that would put them in compliance. All districts must submit their plans to the state by Dec. 1.
However, officials in two local school districts who did not attend the meeting said later the law's shortcomings are more extensive than Gendron has acknowledged.
Gendron said the law's requirement that merged districts raise at least $2 per $1,000 valuation to pay for their schools "creates a greater cost in some areas."
She said later the risk is that a few small districts may decide not to merge because it would be cheaper to pay the penalties for failing to do so -- including reduced state aid -- than to raise property taxes to comply with the law.
Gendron also told lawmakers that some districts with high property values could see a reduction in their special-education funding if they merge.
"There are pockets that are raising objections," Gendron said. No one disputed that assessment at the meeting, but two local school officials said later the law is creating more problems than Gendron alluded to Wednesday.
Superintendent Richard Colpitts of School Administrative District 39, which includes Buckfield, Hartford and Sumner said if his district merged with nearby SAD 17, the Oxford Hills School District, which the state is suggesting, a substantial cost shift would cut property taxes in what is now SAD 39 and raise them in what is now SAD 17.
"It's really hard to sell a merger to a community that is going to see its taxes rise substantially," Colpitts said. "I know we're not the only district struggling with that disparity."
SAD 39 had planned to merge with Union 29, but Colpitts said the state rejected that idea because the consolidated district would have been too small. That places SAD 39 among 57 school systems whose merger plans failed to win state approval, forcing them to research alternatives before the December deadline.
"For (Gendron) or anybody else to say we are well on the way to consolidation is disingenuous because we are at the infancy stage of these mergers," said Tim Wheaton, a school board member in Yarmouth.
Wheaton said he knows of at least 15 districts that face tax and cost increases if they merge, partly because pay scales and other expenses that vary from one district to another will have to be equalized in a merged district. As in the business community, there will be "very real startup costs" once districts merge, Wheaton said.
"There are a few places where we are inclined to agree that there may be a potential financial barrier" involving more problems with the law than the two cited by Gendron in her briefing Wednesday, Connerty-Marin, Gendron's spokesman, said later in the day.
Asked about claims by critics that many school districts may have compelling financial reasons not to merge, Connerty-Marin said, "We need to look at the financial analysis a lot more carefully before we can draw any kind of conclusion like that."
Staff Writer Paul Carrier can be contacted at 622-7511 or at:
pcarrier@pressherald.com
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