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BY DARLA L. PICKETT
Staff Writer 08/28/2008

JACKMAN -- Jackman-area school officials say they simply cannot work with a consolidation plan that includes school districts in Bingham, Anson-North Anson and Madison.

And to make their point Tuesday night, directors of School Administrative District 12 -- which educates 180 students from K-12 in Jackman and West Forks -- voted "not" to file a letter of intent to consolidate.

"We batted it around and decided not to file," said Clarence Begin, chairman of the SAD 12 school board. "We fully realize we're non-compliant and that the (state's) commissioner of education will be in touch with us rather shortly."

For the past year, Begin said, Jackman has been part of a Regional Planning Committee exploring a combined district with SAD 13 (Bingham, Moscow) and SAD 74 (North Anson, Anson, New Portland, Embden and Solon). Just recently a new letter of intent was created to include SAD 59 (Madison, Athens, Starks and Brighton Plantation), along with other smaller towns in between, he said.

Initially, Begin said, it made sense for Jackman, at the northern tip of Somerset County, to be talking with the Madison, Anson and Carrabec area because of the geography. But the more they talked, the more SAD 12 directors realized that Jackman is an island unto itself.

"Jackman is an island surrounded by woods. It is 50 miles away from the nearest school," said Begin.

For starters, the school money invested at Border Trust bank would likely go elsewhere, upsetting a delicate economic balance, he said.

"We're probably in the top five percent of their client list," Begin said. "I'm not sure how that would affect the bank, but I know it would affect the bank."

Begin said directors also expect it would affect local administration and jobs, also an economic hardship.

So, he said, the board decided: "Let's upset the apple cart and see what happens. The Commissioner (of Education, Susan A. Gendron) knows Jackman. She's been here a couple of times."

Begin said state officials simply do not understand the geographic liabilities of rural school districts -- and they need to.

"Nope, we're going to see how far we can push it," Begin said. "If it can't work in Waterville and Winslow, how in the world is it going to work for us in rural Maine?"

Begin said state officials have even implied that for schools who comply, there will be a bonus at the end. The implication is, he said, that for those who don't play ball, it can cost them. He said he also has been told it's not necessarily about saving money, but about following the law.

"We're just saying 'time out.' We will present our plea just one more time," Begin said.

"We're going to try it and see how badly we get beat up. We want to make a statement. We just want to say, 'Look here folks, this doesn't make any sense for us.' We want an education for the kids. We have all this energy put forth on this whole mess to try to accommodate this law and it has taken away from the kids. We could have found grants and brought the brass (orchestra) in from Bangor for music."

In summary, he said, Jackman directors are fed up: "The best thing that could happen to this whole school consolidation thing is for it to be repealed."

Darla L. Pickett -- 474-9534, Ext. 341

dpickett@centralmaine.com

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