Monday, October 1, 2012

KNOW THE FACTS! ASK QUESTIONS! BE AN INFORMED VOTER! Withdrawal Committee and Board of Selectmen's Meeting Tuesday, October 02, 2012 at 7:00 PM

Withdrawal Committee &
Board of Selectmen's Meeting

Tuesday, October 02, 2012 at 7:00 PM - 9:00PM

TOWN OF ARUNDEL, MAINE WITHDRAWAL COMMITTEE
AND BOARD OF SELECTMEN’S MEETING REGULAR MEETING

October 2, 2012 ML Day School Library 7:00 PM

Approval of Agenda 


New Business:

A. Withdrawal Committee meeting with
Planning Decisions for presentation of cost-benefit analysis data.

Public Comment Period Adjourn

10 comments:

  1. ~It should be noted that the final draft of the numbers will be to Todd on Thursday morning and available for anyone to get at Town Hall. Please to do this, and make sure that you are educated.

    Last night we finally heard the numbers everyone has waited for from our non-biased company that we paid for I certainly hope in the name of full disclosure and honesty that this site will provide the document here for people to look at.

    The conclusions on page 13 of the document given out are as follows:

    "Leaving the RSU would systematically disadvantage Arundel because of the nature of the Maine DOE's method of calculating subsidizable EPS costs"

    "Leaving the RSU would put tax payers of Arundel at greater risk of budgetary fluctuation because of the variability and expense of SpEd services..."

    "Leaving the RSU would challenge the administrators of the new Arundel School unit to operate in new, small-system ways to overcome the natural diseconomies of scale in running a small, stand-alone system"

    Leia~

    ReplyDelete
  2. The data from the report will be posted on this site once it becomes available to the general public.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Available to the general public? I thought the information was already presented. why the hold up?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Anonymous,

      You are correct the information was available to the general public if you were available to attend the meeting. If you happen to know of a location where the report is posted please share or if you happen to have a hard copy of any materials please scan it into a PDF and forward to arundelmaine@roadrunner.com and we will be more than glad to post it.

      As to your question regarding the delay...you will have to ask the people whom conducted the meeting directly @ www.arundelmaine.org

      Delete
  4. There may be some hold up because there was an error for the building renovations. That showed Arundel having a savings, and 2 Arundel Withdrawal Committee members picked up on it. It is believed that there will be no savings with the renovations.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There were no errors... there was an ask for more information and the only error noted was that one number showed positive instead of a negative...and actually it did nothing more than to show the ultimate savings per thousand to be in the RSU. That error was on the table on page 13. I will do what I can to scan it although the final should be posted on the town website tomorrow...so maybe just wait for that? and reference it?

      The only changes will be that number cited at positive instead of negative and the addition of information relating to savings staying in the district after 2016. Dianne was looking for errors based on notes from a cost sharing meeting quite a while ago, but they didn't find any that I was aware of, at least that was what it sounded like at the meeting.
      Leia~

      Delete
    2. Leia,

      I hope you are right, the document was a draft, and not final. The renovations are huge. Where is the report?

      Delete
  5. The documents that were handed to the public last night at the meeting were marked drafts. I believe that Todd Shea, the town manager, said the documents would be on the website by Thursday. At this point no error was found. What did come out in the meeting, as Leia stated, was that the it would cost the town of Arundel more to withdraw from the RSU and at a greater cost to the tax payer, the level of education will fall. Even with a 52,000,000.00 renovation to Kennebunk High School, withdrawing from the RSU will cost Arundel more. Please attend the public forum on October 10th at 7:00 at the ML Day Gym and get all the facts.

    ReplyDelete
  6. We shall see when the final document is placed on the town website.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I read Mr. Lawton's report and again I ask myself how can the town of Arundel ever think they are better off alone with less control, a higher tuition bill, and the only place to make cuts at the elementary level? Unfortunately I don't believe this will change anyone's mind because false information will still be spread through the use of a flyer that looks like an official town flyer, but isn't because our town boards and leaders say its not their place to suggest what is best for the town. Once again I will try to be optimistic and hope the town will put education first over vendettas and bent noses

    ReplyDelete