To the Editor:
It is
the unanimous opinion of the Arundel Economic Development Committee that
the taxpayers of Arundel would be better off financially if the Town
were to remain in the RSU 21 School District rather than leave the RSU
and "go it alone." This opinion is based on an analysis of the report
prepared by Planning Decisions, Inc., an economic consulting firm from
Portland, on the comparative costs of withdrawing from or remaining in
the RSU 21 School District.
Although the Planning Decisions report is
lengthy and somewhat complicated, the consultants have provided the town
with six projected school budgets that could be expected. Three of
these budgets (Options 1-3) reflect costs to the town if we withdraw and
"go it alone," while the other three projected budgets reflect costs to
the town if we stay in RSU 21. All of these projected budgets are based
on different estimates of future costs, some of which cannot be
precisely determined.
I would like to read this whole thing but when I click on read more.... it won't let me... it says I don't have access.... something wrong or my computer still refusing to cooperate with this page? :-)
ReplyDeleteLeia
Cant' read the whole thing either...it goes to seacoastonline and I've used all my time this month.
ReplyDelete-Lisa
The link has been tested and is working correctly.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to say I can not post any additional information from the story based on the fair usage limitations for copy righted materials.
Thank you Arundel EDC for taking a public stance on your opinion! I hope more in position will follow suit.
ReplyDeleteEssentially saying what most of us know at this point. The options to stay on our own cost way too much...Option 1 which is the cheapest on our own option is NOT viable without severely hurting our most needy students.
ReplyDeleteA VOTE NO and staying in the district results in a savings of between 51K and 305K per year.
That over a 20 year span we look to save between 1 million and 6 million dollars by staying in the district, and it is the recommendation of the Economic Development committee that Citizens of Arundel Vote NO on November 6th in the best interest of the town.
It was signed by the entire committee: Ira Camp, John Bell, Jeff Burnham, Jennifer burrows and Linda Zuke
Just FYI and I am sure it won't be put here in a way that we can all read it, but Dan Dubois town selectmen has now publicly stated that NUMBERS DON"T LIE. It is in Arundel's best interest to stay in the district...
Folks, our town leaders are now saying it.... stop the foolishness of tearing our town apart and setting it up for loosing its school, loosing its house values, and running our town into the ground....
VOTE NO
I am not so sure a vote no is in order quite just yet. Option one does have the potential for being a viable option.
ReplyDeletebefore you think about option One, consider this FACT.
ReplyDeletethe last stand alone budget for Arundel was over 6.6 million. that was for a compliance budget per then chairperson John Renell. the only problem was that when we joined the RSU, we found out it was not realy compliant. We did not fund state mandated projects, had major deficiencies with the faculty, very poor support of teachers and a library with mostly outdated and very old books. 2009 and the book on presidents only had one George? Come on!
Option One is a joke. it was intented to show us that going alone is not an option. going alone will mean higher taxes and a closure to mlday.
vote no.
"VOTE NO ON WITHDRAWAL "
ReplyDelete"Vote no on withdrawal "
ReplyDeleteIf we were not in compliance because of the lack of funding, there was $1.6 MILLION of unused funds appropriated by the tax payers of Arundel. Why? Jon Rennell wasn't even on the board the last year, the highest years of unused money. Over 600,000 worth of unused money. Who was on the board then?
ReplyDeletePlease tell me you're not on a budget board!
DeleteThat money was 100% of our total town reserves to cover way more than just the school.
The account is now way lower than that now and keeps going lower by doing studies like the EDC study and RSU study. You cant zero out that balance as you have to have reserves for things like lower than expected tax revenue, roads, building repairs, etc.
I sure hope you don't use that logic with your personal finances. That's called rolling the dice....
$1.6 million education funds, double checked it myself.
ReplyDelete1.6 million was never ever reserve funds for the school budget!
ReplyDeleteAt least now we know which lies will be included in the withdrawal's mass mailing this week!
ReplyDeleteWe had carry over to help fix the heating system or furnace in the school or something like that. They were etting a little bit each budget if I remember correctly. Because we couldn't afford to fix our building.
ReplyDeleteYou are right Jon Rennell wasn't on the last board.
the money that all went over to RSU21 was given back to ONLY Arundel as a tax relief in that first year of consolidation to help absorb the cost of getting our teachers to even the paychecks
My vote will be no. But I think that even if we convinced the yes people that everything would be free, they would still vote yes! They hate kennebunk that much. Sad.
ReplyDelete