APRIL 10th VOTE | 8:00am - 8:00pm

To ALL ARUNDEL RESIDENTS:

The following information was submitted by the
The Save Arundel Group and other Concerned Arundel Citizens
for Public Viewing.

~ What you need to know before the April 10th vote ~

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

~ About the FIRST vote on April 10th  ~ 

• Voting YES is not a vote against EDUCATION!
• Voting YES is not a vote for withdrawal of the RSU!
• Voting YES will allow an independent study to be done that will give all of us information we are so desperately looking for.
• Voting YES will also allow us to form a Withdrawal Committee to create a plan to withdraw. This is a mandatory step of the withdrawal process, mandated by the State of Maine.

There will only be one question on the Ballot. Please see below.
If the yes vote does not pass, then it will be two years before another petition can be signed to withdraw from the RSU.
 
~ Ballot for April 10th ~
It will be stated like this:
Do you favor filing a petition for withdrawal with the Board of Directors of Regional School Unit 21 and with the Commissioner of Education, authorizing the Withdrawal Committee to expend $35,000 and authorizing the Board of Selectman to issue notes in the name of the Town of Arundel or other-wise pledge the credit of the Town of Arundel in an amount not to exceed $35,000 for this purpose?

Yes  X               No ____

Note: Absentee ballots are available now at the town hall and remember no absentee voting is allowed three business days before the election ***

~ About the Second and Final vote ~
(This will only occur if we win the April 10th Vote)
THIS IS THE VOTE THAT WILL DETERMINE IF WE WITHDRAW FROM THE RSU21 OR NOT.
We will ALL have the information we need to make an informed decision before the final vote.
The Maine State Board of Education will approve the plan before it can go to a vote, so the Town will know this a solid plan.
We would LOVE to have this vote take place during the presidential election in November, but this may be an aggressive timeline.

~ About the $35,000 ~
Arundel’s Board of Selectman came up with this figure that needs to be voted on April 10th. This is the breakdown:

$12,000 Consultant Fee/Study (This may change)
This is for a study from an unbiased group to determine if withdrawal is the right move for our town. The Board of Selectman feels this is necessary to ensure citizens make the right decision on withdrawal from the RSU21.
Page 1.
$15,000 Legal Counsel
Attorney work, negotiations, etc.

$ 8,000 Buffer
This is for unexpected cost/overages, such as the consultant fee.

This money would be taken from the ‘Undesignated Funds’ for our town which has MILLIONS of dollars in it.

The $35,000 is a very SMALL fraction of these funds and is ESSENTIAL to the giving us the information we need to make an informed decision.

A few important side notes:
All this money may not be needed.
Any of this money not spent will stay in the undesignated funds account.


~ Here’s What You Need to Know ~
When we joined with RSU 21:
We gave them a Quit Claim Deed to our school for $0.
We gave them 6 buses, one of which was brand new, for $0.
We gave them approximately $460,000 of Arundel taxpayer’s carry forward money.
We gave them $95,000 of Arundel’s tax dollars refunded from federal contingency money.
Our mold issues at ML Day were REMEDIATED and PAID for.
Our school and busses were PAID for and we had $0 in debt.
Our Arundel school board negotiated with Thornton Academy to provide us with a brand new middle school that is state of the art for nothing more than the state minimum tuition to Arundel tax payers.
Again $0 debt to Arundel taxpayers.
(I think we can all agree- Arundel did a LOT of things right.)

We were told the TAMS contract would not be affected, yet as we all know it was
in serious jeopardy last year.

Note: One of the buses we gave the RSU21 had to be decommissioned.

Since we have joined with RSU 21:

We have NO CONTROL over how the money is spent in the school district, yet
approximately 75% of our taxes are spent on schooling our children.
The Supporters of the RSU say we have three elected officials on the RSU21 School Board and they are OUR VOICE. Unfortunately, three votes out of twelve gets Arundel NO WHERE!

They mention our strong voting influence- An example of this would be Arundel has voted down EVERY school budget since we have been involved in RSU21, yet it passes every year. This is NOT voting power for Arundel.
We have taken on New Debt for problems that occurred, prior to us joining RSU 21. With just the Middle School of the Kennebunks (MSK) alone we will be paying $16,000 for 10 years.
 
Some Budget Information-
To offset the increase in the school budget, other town departments were cut, so taxes would not be increased. (This cannot continue).
To offset the increase in the school budget, a surplus in the undesignated funds was used, so taxes would not be increased.
Our taxes have gone up every year at a disproportional rate compared to Kennebunk and Kennebunkport.

A few notes on the RSU Supporters Handout-
The numbers used on their handout were the original numbers that they wanted to put in the Arrow. The numbers were produced by Jack Reetz (Pro RSU21 Arundel Rep and Andrew Dolloff RSU21 Superintendant). These numbers were reviewed by Todd Shea (our town manager) and he could NOT VERIFY them and therefore could not use them.
Please take a moment to look at the figures posted in the Arrow verses the numbers they passed out to you.
Please also note in 2009, we were part of the RSU21, yet this figure was added to the Pre-RSU side with a massive increase.

~ Here’s What We Do Know ~

After April 10th, it would be too late to back out and not be on the hook for the money spent by RSU 21- the biggest expense being the high school renovations.

Arundel has high school choice, yet only 6% of Kennebunk High School students are from Arundel. Why would we want to pay to renovate a high school that so few of our children attend plus tuition, when all we need to pay for is tuition?

Note: At this time Arundel students cannot attend MSK without paying tuition, but this will change once the contract with TAMS expires in 2016. If we do not withdraw from the RSU21, the RSU21 will have the say as to whether they will sign a new contract with Thornton Academy and we all know this will not happen. Last year was the proof of this.

Arundel has a GREAT deal with TAMS. Our children get a top notch education for the state minimum tuition. If TAMS needs renovating, Arundel tax payers pay $0.

Note: There is a waiting list to get into TAMS. This and the overwhelming vote that
took place last year supporting TAMS is a clear indication that TAMS is a school of excellence that we are extremely fortunate to be a part of.

People move to Arundel for high school choice and now they move to Arundel so their children can attend TAMS.

An article to the Editor said that three towns paying for our school is better than one town paying for the school. This statement would be true if we were the Town of Kennebunk. Their high school needs massive renovations and then there are still the unknowns with MSK.

There are always going to be unknowns, but we think we are safer taking chances with our one school rather than taking a chance on six schools. Remember the looming High School renovations and issues at MSK (these are just two of the six schools).

~ NECAP Test Scores ~
There is a lot of hype on test scores since we merged with the RSU. The State of Maine is moving away from these tests and moving to a national exam. More information can be found on the Maine State Board of Education’s website.

In 2009, the state switched from MEA’s to NECAP’s, so these kids are also testing with different tests.

~ About ML Day School ~

Staff and Salary Increases
There is no question that today ML Day is a better school than it was a few years ago. That credit goes to Dr. Crowley and his amazing staff. The amazing staff that Dr. Crowley is always praising are primarily our teachers from before the RSU21. Many of these teachers have been teaching at ML Day for years, even decades.

Note: This District (RSU21) has some of the highest paid teachers in the State of Maine.
In order for our Arundel teachers to make what the other teachers did in the district, they had to have raises of $8,000- $12,000 each. This was an increase of $170,000 in just salaries alone.

Maintaining Quality Education
There is no question that Dr. Crowley and his team of very fine teachers have improved
the quality of education for our children. We had the great teachers but were lacking the leadership we have now.

To maintain our quality of education, we need to:

1. Have STRONG leadership. 
2. Maintain these salaries and insurances for our
   teachers- it would be unfair to take this away from them now.
3. Stay in compliance with State mandated programs
4. Work closely with our teachers and see what has worked
   and improve upon what hasn’t.

Programs that were cut
You always hear about what the RSU21 has brought to our schools, but you don’t hear what was taken away. They brought in Spanish but many other things were cut back. Some of them were:
Physical Education- obesity is horrible problem for our youth in this country
Music- we had a teacher that offered FREE lessons after school and was dedicated to her kids and her program
Art
Guidance
Computer Class

Note: Spanish is taught for one hour a week K-5. Perhaps we can pay this same teacher
for her time at ML Day and then Spanish can continue.

The Facility
Repairs done by the RSU included work to the exterior, water and heating system, interior finishes which included a new office and principal office, and landscaping. (See attachment)

The road entering into the school was repaved by the Town of Arundel, not the RSU21.

Including renovations and technology improvements-
the RSU has spent $227,602.

Remember we gave them over half a million dollars
when we joined the RSU.


VOTE YES! on APRIL 10th, 2012 8:00am - 8:00pm

Attachments:

MLD Facilities I

MLD Facilities II