Thursday, October 18, 2012

Withdrawal: Arundel's choice

 
To the Editor:

Should the primary reason be the quality of education provided your children, ABSOLUTELY. When you have the opportunity to send your children to one of the premier schools in Maine. Thornton Academy, a school that this year attracts 136 students from 16 countries who pay tuition of between $12,500 and $23,870 (excluding board of up to $27,250); compare these costs to the bargain rates Arundel students pay of $7,335 for middle school and $9,275 for high school. Which would you choose, the RSU or Thornton? RSU 21 with a budget of $35 million for 2,644 students has an average cost of $13,472 per student.

23 comments:

  1. You are wrong again you asked the town to spend 35000 on a study and now the numbers are not in your favor let's ask the parents if they would go to Kennebunk oh wait they can't per order of a court order. you can have your second rate school I wonder what people were promised from thorton no thanks

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  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    1. You removed my post why? You allowed Ed to post lies just saying.

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    2. Guidelines for posting comments 1. Keep it civil, stay on topic 2. No vulgarity, racial slurs, name-calling or personal attacks. 3. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. Treat others with the same respect you'd want for yourself.

      Dear Anonymous Friday, October 19, 2012 6:57:00 AM EDT,

      Your post was acceptable until the last line. You may re-post it if you would like just eliminate the last line of comment[#2].

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  3. Why Does Ed, who is not an Arundel resident, want Arundel to withdraw so badly? His numbers do not reflect the cost of special education or transportation. He should at least be comparing apples to apples. The worse part is he KNOWS! He's been told this repeatedly. The lies never cease to amaze me.

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    1. He's got way too much time on his hands.

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  4. Why is it people in the PRO RSU group can't make there statements without being so mean, harsh and abrasive. Simply state your opinions. The Pro RSU group has stooped to new lows with harassment, chasing others out to the parking lot and threatening them. Are we not allowed to believe in different things, is this not the USA!! We don't speak lies we give the truth only it may differ then your beliefs but its how we feel you can not take that away from people.

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    1. Read the report your group wanted out from the start Jon stated he would not do any thing to support the rsu from day one it is your group that is bulling not ours.

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  5. The lies are the problem and that is what this group is posting check the facts before posting them

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  6. David Lane, Jon Renell, and Diane Robbins should be run out of Arundel for what they have done to divide the Town. That the numbers don't add up to withdraw and yet they still defy common sense and are willing to forsake quality of education is mind blowing.

    Are any of them college educated? I know Diane is just a HS graduate with no degree, not sure about David or Jon but I think that would be telling.

    As for Ed, that editorial is a complete lie. It's doesn't have all the numbers and distorts reality. My guess is he views having kids from another town as "low class".

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  7. Again post your facts only and quit throwing names around. The majority of Arundel must be uneducated according to you because we all know the facts and you know which way this vote is going to go!!To bad you have to behave so childish in your rants. I wonder who is the uneducated one.

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    1. So you're voting against the withdrawal, then? Because the facts are plain to see: Arundel cannot afford to run a school on its own. The consultant stated it quite clearly: 'Withdrawal would systematically disadvantage Arundel'.

      If you think that 'the facts' mean we should withdraw, you may want to consider what 'systematically disadvantage' means. It doesn't mean it would be a rough patch we'd get over. It means teachers would lose jobs, children wouldn't have a school to go to because we cannot afford the maintenance, to bring it up to code, or to pay for basic facilities expenses, and our property taxes would increase, because of it. Think about the other town services we'd lose or have very little of, because we couldn't afford to pay for them.

      It would have a domino effect on EVERYTHING, not just MLD, and your pride or longstanding grudge (however you like to label it to sleep at night) isn't going to pay the bills, either.

      You do realize there are people who supported withdrawal that are now reconsidering, since they've seen the numbers? Numbers, I will note, that came from a consultant, not from the RSU, and not from anyone who has a vested interest in withdrawing or staying.

      Mr. Rennell likes to nickle and dime every argument. We're talking millions of dollars that the town doesn't have to go it alone. It's much bigger than Mr. Rennell's myopic math challenge.

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  8. Jon, David, and Diane all deserve everything thrown at them. The claim it's about money or local control is hogwash.

    For Jon and David both have contempt for Kennebunk. It's that simple and they don't care about quality of education or cost. But they aren't honest to tell people it's personal vendettas. That is why I have no respect for them as they lie about their true beliefs about why they want to fooloshly withdraw.

    David is out there trying to claim Arundel gave a good education per RSU. Sure, if we ignore every metric a school is measured by and fail to remember the reason we had to look out of Arundel for 6-8 grade students was because Arundel could not meet state standards. That's what Jon and David (both former school board members) don't seem to want to talk about. They themselves were part of the problem!!!
    Diane was for taxes as her reason for wanting to withdraw led to her misguided thinking and now that the number show she's wrong I see her being unwilling to admit the obvious. Diane cares not one iota about education and needs to be yanked from the school board.

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    1. We need some folks that are a bit younger on the board; people who are parents to kids in the RSU now, and parents who support the RSU. Diane is the worst representative of the school district who could possibly have been voted in. Jack was a voice of reason, conscientious, and listened to the people he served.

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    2. Why do you think Diane is the worst representavie of the school district?

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  9. Let's see if Ed Geoghan is in fact not telling the truth? $35,888,933 is the total budget, RSU 21 educates 2644 students. $3588933/2644=$13480 per student. Not a lie. EPS and over EPS is different. Actual costs to educate students is a total budget divided by the number of students. $7335 & $9275 in comparison to the $13480 or as Ed said $13472 a big difference. Is it the 8 bucks that makes him a liar? (Not being sarcastic, just trying to understand your view point.) What is required to be calculated at the State level is entirely different than what an actual budget is. Some things are not required to be reported at the State level.

    Ed does make some very good points in the letter, over built schools with declining enrollments in Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, and renovations that at the time were at $60 million. The costs have risen since up to as much as $72 million.

    What I see from reading his article and the posts here, people want to stay consolidated with RSU 21. How can we make this a feasible option? By closing a school in the district. Consolidated and KES have enough classroom space to close ML Day.

    What are we going to do if the folks over in Kennebunkport decide to build a whole new entire school?

    Everyone has an opinion and thoughts about what they would like to see happen with the district. I don't think they should be run out of town for voicing it, nor do I believe we should make those who say people are lying shouldn't have a voice in all of this. I would go as so far to say this, many people in the world have high school diplomas, no college education, and some do not even graduate from high school and become millionaires. Making people feel bad because they have not achieved something that you see they need to to be an adequate voice is not very nice or becoming. I'd rather see people voice their concern respectfully, and people to agree that maybe they don't agree on everything, but can at least be nice. It irks me to know end when people have said the above, or move to X so you can have X.

    Ed is being truthful in his article.

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  10. He and the rest of you are impared"VOTE NO ON WITHDRAWAL"THE ED AND ED SHOW NEEDS TO END they are both tax hateing tax payers that do not have kids I had school I wonder how the voted when there kids we're there AGAIN "VOTE NO ON WITHDRAWAL "


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  11. As usual, a simple reflection of simple math causes someone on the vote no side to say hateful things, it must have made you so angry that you couldn't spell hating properly. It's not hating, it's making good use of tax dollars. All this anger that spews out at the finger tips makes me want to vote Yes, and hop on the campaign of withdrawal.

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    1. I spelled wrong cause I am on my phone I hope you will vote to save our town and all three communitys i am not an angry person just want what is best for our towns

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  12. Why did we hire an expert there numbers don't lie that's why I am piseed we spent the money for a reason if you can't see the truth now your vote is already cast just saying

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  13. The numbers reflect a savings. They are what they are with out consideration of Arundel. 23% of a district budget. It doesn't add up. Arundel will be smarter than that. If not in 3 years we will know whether or not Arundel made the right choice.

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  14. Unfortunately then will be to late I know that if we withdraw I will sell my family home and land that we have had for 80 years for less than it will be worth if we stayed in the rsu. I do not want any part of the ignorance of this town

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