Central Aroostook RPC Meeting
September 17, 2008
6:00 pm
Easton Elementary School Cafeteria
SAU’s Participating: Bridgewater, Easton, MSAD #42, MSAD #45
Members Present:
Bridgewater: Terri Allen; Wayne Bradbury; Nina Bradstreet; Duska Kingsbury
Easton: Mike Corey; Dave Hopkins; Norman Trask; Frank Keenan, Superintendent (Liaison)
MSAD #42: Greg Day; Todd Grass; Jamie McClay, Nate Smith
MSAD #45: Daren Churchill; Theresa Cochran; Jerry Dow; Tim Humphrey; Mike McIntosh; Ed Buckley, Superintendent (Liaison)
Non-Members Present: Gerald Clockedile (RPC Facilitator); Kimberly Hall, Recording Secretary
Members Absent: Jan Greico (MSAD #45); Carolee Hallett (MSAD #42); Gehrig Johnson (Bridgewater-Supt. Liaison); Tom Osgood (Easton); Andrea Powers (MSAD #45); Butch Richardson (Bridgewater); Ellen Schneider (Bridgewater-Supt. Liaison);Cary Schumaker (MSAD #45); Roger Shaw (MSAD #42-Supt. Liaison); Nate Smith (MSAD #42)
1. The meeting was called to order at 6:10 pm in the Easton Elementary School cafeteria by Co Vice-Chairperson, Mike McIntosh (MSAD #45).
2. New business – A financial report of RPC expenditures to date from the fiscal agent (Easton) was presented.
3. Adjustments to the agenda – none
4. Public comment – none
5. Facilitator Update/Comments – Jake Clockedile
a. Mr. Clockedile stated that he had attended a facilitator’s meeting in Augusta earlier today. At the meeting the Commissioner gave an update on the progress in the consolidation process. Seven more plans were approved yesterday (including St. John Valley), seven more are pending and twenty are still in the working process
b. Mr. Clockedile also stated that the state is currently in the process of reviewing the chart of accounts to alleviate problems with consolidation. There are a number of issues surrounding the consolidation of districts that are using different accounting systems. Many are not compatible and it is causing many headaches when attempting to combine.
c. Mr. Clockedile stated that another issue that has come up is Erate. He recommended that the plan included a provision about how E-rate will be handled. Mr. Keenan asked if any thought had been given to how consolidation would affect e-rate reimbursement. E-rate is based upon the poverty rate of a district and wondered if consolidation would decrease the overall poverty rate resulting in a decrease in e-rate funds.
6. Superintendent comments/reports – none.
7. Discussion/questions since last meeting – Todd Grass (MSAD #42) asked if the debate regarding the wording on the deeds of the Easton school buildings had been resolved. Mike Corey (Easton) stated that one deed listed the inhabitants of the Town of Easton as owner and the other listed the Easton School District (an entity that does not legally exist). The issue had been discussed at the Selectmen meeting and a lawyer is working on it, but he stated that it would not be an issue and should not hinder the vote on the draft submitted by the Disposition of Property subcommittee.
8. Motion by Mike Corey (Easton), 2nd by Greg Day (MSAD #42) to approve the minutes of the September 3, 2008 meeting with proposed changes by Dave Hopkins as presented. Approved unanimously.
9. Sub-Committee questions/concerns - none
10. Sub-Committee presentation of draft materials to date:
a. Norm Trask presented draft documents for sections 1, 2, 3, 9, 11, 13C and 13F from the Governance Subcommittee. Delegations will review the documents for a possible vote later in the evening.
b. Todd Grass presented draft documents for section 5 from the Disposition of Property Subcommittee. Delegations will review the documents for a possible vote later in the evening.
11. Members broke out into subcommittee groups for a work session at 6:25 pm to work on their areas of the plans. Plans were made to disband subcommittees at 8:15 pm to allow delegations to review draft documents for a possible vote. Group to reconvene at 8:30 pm.
Return to full committee at 8:34 pm.
At this point in the meeting, Mike McIntosh requested a postponement of voting on the draft documents that had been handed out because his delegation felt that they had not had enough time to go over them thoroughly and didn’t feel they were ready to vote on them. He also recommended that voting be placed very early on the next agenda.
Tim Humphrey asked that any submission of drafts be done no later than one meeting prior to voting to allow for time to review.
Mike Corey requested that community delegations try to rely on their subcommittee membership as much as possible to streamline the voting process.
Voting on the draft documents submitted by the Governance and Disposition of Property Subcommittees postponed to the October 9 meeting by consensus.
12. Reports of Sub-Committees:
Finance: Mike McIntosh reported that the Finance Subcommittee is making progress and are right on the edge of agreements regarding the allocation of tax revenue. They plan to meet before the next regular meeting and hope to have draft documentation to distribute at the next meeting for review.
Contracts/Educational Planning: Greg Day reported that the Contract/Educational Planning Subcommittee is continuing to work on consolidating the tremendous amount of data that they have collected from the individual districts. They are planning to meeting prior to the next regular meeting to have a work session.
Governance: Done.
Disposition of Property: Done.
13. Other Discussion Items:
Greg Day recommended that the group begin the process of looking for legal help to review the final plan. He suggested that Norm Trask might be the likely candidate to begin the search for a legal firm to handle this. Mr. Clockedile said that the normal turnaround time for having legal review is around 2 weeks. Mr. Trask stated that he would be willing to begin looking into firms around the state who have some experience in this.
Mr. Keenan requested that the next regular meeting be held on Thursday, October 9, 2009 instead of Wednesday, October 8 due to a conflict with the Easton Board meeting. This was approved by consensus.
Mr. Clockedile suggested starting to plan for the public meetings as they need to be announced and promoted prior to holding them to encourage the greatest possible public participation. Mr. Keenan reminded the group that it would be better to hold the actual meeting as soon as the plan has been approved by the group. Otherwise the public won’t see this group as a united entity which has created a workable plan.
Future meeting dates were discussed with a tentative plan to meet every week beginning with the October 9, 2009 meeting.
14. Facilitator summary comments: Mr. Clockedile requested an early slot on the next agenda for a presentation on State Finance & State Demographics from the Maine Development Foundation. Approved by consensus.
15. Next meeting date: Thursday, October 9, 2008 at 6:00 pm at the Easton Elementary School cafeteria.
16. Meeting adjourned at 8:50 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Kimberly Hall
Recording Secretary
Central Aroostook RPC Membership
Name Community Phone E-mail
Terri Allen Bridgewater 425-2161 polyop61@hotmail.com
Wayne Bradbury Bridgewater 227-2828 janet@pioneercable.net
Nina Bradstreet Bridgewater 429-8130 bradstreet@pioneercable.net
Duska Kingsbury Bridgewater 425-7149 duska@pwless.net
Butch Richardson Bridgewater 429-8811 rrichardson2ainop.com
Ellen Schneider* Bridgewater 764-4101 ellen.schneider@sad1.org
Gehrig Johnson* Bridgewater 764-4101 gehrig@sad1.org
Norman Trask Easton 764-4193 ntrask@curriertrask.com
Michael Corey Easton 488-6917 mcorey@hydroblendinc.com
Tom Osgood Easton 488-6932 tosgood@mamusg.com
Dave Hopkins Easton 227-3446 dhopkins@ces-maine.com
Frank Keenan* Easton 488-7700 frank.keenan@eastonschooldistrict.org
Roger Shaw* MSAD #42 425-3771 rshaw@sad42.k12.me.us
Nathan Smith MSAD #42 429-8095 polisciguy02@hotmail.com
James McClay MSAD #42 227-8606 jmcclay@amhc.org
Greg Day MSAD #42 425-5301 gregory.j.day@maine.org
Carolee Hallett MSAD #42 425-2242 carolee@207me.com
Todd Grass MSAD #42 429-9497 toddgrass@hotmail.com
Daren Churchill MSAD #45 455-4046 dschurchill@verizon.net
Andrea Powers MSAD #45 455-1002 townmanager@washburnmaine.org
Jerry Dow MSAD #45 455-5913 perhamtown@yahoo.com
Michael McIntosh MSAD #45 455-4812 m_mcintosh@yahoo.com
Jan Grieco MSAD #45 455-4907 jangrieco@ainop.com
Theresa Cochran MSAD #45 455-5865 tcochran@ainop.com
Edward Buckley* MSAD #45 455-8301 edpbuckley@yahoo.com
Cary Schumacker MSAD #45
Tim Humphrey MSAD #45 455-4988 jandthumphrey@aol.com
Jake Clockedile Old Orchard 205-5334 ggclock@gwi.net