By Beth Brogan, Times Record Staff
Published:
Friday, February 19, 2010 2:07 PM EST
BRUNSWICK — Brunswick school officials and local legislators this week continued their efforts to address significant cuts to state aid to education that will likely contribute to a $4 million chasm in the budget for 2010-11.
However, those efforts followed different paths, and recently led to conflict and harsh words among leaders who ultimately hope to achieve the same goal.
On Feb. 10, Superintendent Paul Perzanoski wrote to Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron — with courtesy copies sent to the entire Brunswick legislative delegation and Gov. John Baldacci — asking for a review of anticipated education aid cuts that are now expected to reach nearly $3 million, or 9.9 percent of the district budget.
In his letter, Perzanoski referred to a 2008 meeting between education officials and Leighton Cooney, Baldacci’s liaison for Brunswick Naval Air Station redevelopment, at which “a great deal of discussion centered on possible ways to soften the economic ‘perfect storm’ that was on the horizon. Brunswick was noted as the town that would have to endure the greatest amount of burden.”
The “perfect storm” metaphor refers to the combined negative economic impacts of the Navy base’s scheduled closure in 2011, the loss of local jobs affiliated with the base, the loss of federal aid to Brunswick schools for educating Navy children and effects Navy families’ departure would have on the way state government calculates annual subsidies to local school districts.
The day after Perzanoski sent his letter, Brunswick School Board chairman Byron Watson — at a public meeting — expressed his outrage at the “overly disproportionate, ridiculously excessive and just unbelievably unequal” cuts in state aid to education Brunswick would experience this year and next. Watson encouraged local residents concerned about the cuts to contact the local legislative delegation “and find out just exactly what they’re doing for you and your children.”
In a Feb. 5 e-mail to House Speaker Hannah Pingree, Watson also pleaded for assistance, asking Pingree “to lobby in favor of seriously reconsidering the drastically disproportionate hit that is being laid upon the Brunswick School System.” He asked how it was possible that Brunswick schools are “taking the second-largest hit in the entire state at the same time that they are losing the Naval base?”
In 2005, following the Base Realignment and Closure vote to close BNAS in 2011, Gov. John Baldacci and Stan Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick, then a state representative and now a state senator, attended an editorial board meeting at The Times Record. In response to a question about whether the Department of Education would adapt its annual subsidy formula — in which student population factors heavily — to compensate for an anticipated sharp decrease in the number of Navy children attending Brunswick schools, Baldacci said the BNAS closure would present unique circumstances for Brunswick that would need to be addressed.
On Wednesday, Watson said, “We’re wondering if the ‘special circumstances’ meant we’re going to get our butts handed to us. … We’re getting hammered and we wonder why. There’s got to be something going on because this is ridiculous.”
Watson called the delegation “ineffective leaders,” adding, “We’ve heard nothing from them.”
Liaison committees
All four Brunswick legislators said Thursday that they had not been contacted by any member of the Brunswick School Board. However, Gerzofsky said he spoke to Watson the night he was sworn in as board chairman and advised Watson to “set up a small group of people” to address the curtailment.
Gerzofsky said that he also urged Watson to have School Board members testify before the Legislature’s Education and Appropriations committees about the impact of aid cuts on Brunswick schools.
“I wanted to set up some sort of way of working together to come up with solutions and suggestions,” he said.
According to an agenda released Thursday, the School Board’s policy subcommittee is scheduled to consider appointment of members to a newly authorized Legislative Liaison Committee during its meeting on Feb. 25.
In the meantime, Gerzofsky — who represents Brunswick, Freeport, Pownal and Harpswell — said that members of the Regional School Unit 5 board of directors did call him. As a result, in January, he and Sen. Justin Alfond, co-chairman of the Legislature’s Education Committee, met with RSU 5 board members in Freeport. RSU 5 includes Freeport, Pownal and Durham.
“Justin heard things in Freeport that he wasn’t aware of,” Gerzofsky said. “They had really great questions he was able to answer, and a couple of issues he wrote down and brought to his committee the next day.”
Gerzofsky said he would be happy to arrange a similar meeting in Brunswick, but he noted, “So far, it’s 12 o’clock noon on the 18th and nobody has gotten in touch with me. No (Brunswick) School Board members have called me to set up any appointments. And it’s the middle of February.”
Similarly, Rep. Peter Kent, whose district includes part of Brunswick as well as parts of Bath, West Bath, Woolwich and Topsham, said Thursday that he was contacted by members of the RSU 1 school board, and has been meeting with a “coalition” of municipalities, stakeholders and four state legislators for the last month and a half to address budget concerns.
He said he was “curious” why Brunswick School Board members weren’t calling their legislators. “I think to a degree they need to look at themselves,” Kent said. “Why don’t they look at their legislators as players and communicate with them? I have people calling me constantly. … I just have not gotten any communication from (the Brunswick School Board).”
Kent said the RSU 1 coalition has discussed working as a group “to brainstorm ways to reshape the educational system and to approach effecting change in the Legislature.”
Rep. Alex Cornell du Houx and Rep. Charlie Priest, who each represent parts of Brunswick, said Thursday that they hadn’t heard from any School Board members either, although Cornell du Houx did meet with Perzanoski in November to discuss anticipated cuts to the Brunswick schools.
Cornell du Houx also took issue with what he called “unfortunate” and “inappropriate” language in Watson’s e-mail to Pingree. Watson wrote that she was “gorgeous,” but noted, “I’m not writing to hit on you, though.”
In other media reports, Gerzofsky and Priest also criticized the tone of Watson’s e-mail.
Of the e-mail, Watson said Wednesday that he and Pingree have “a cordial relationship” and that “she hasn’t expressed any concerns to me at all.”
Pingree’s Feb. 11 response to Watson’s e-mail outlined the “drastic decline in revenues” faced by the state and Baldacci’s proposed budget that reduced school funding in fiscal year 2011 by $35 million. She noted a statewide referendum in June that will include an $8 million bond for the redevelopment of BNAS, and a proposal under consideration by the Legislature to “assist the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority and to bring a community college presence onto the base.”
Pingree urged Watson to work with Brunswick legislators to come up with solutions to the budget shortfall.
Gerzofsky noted that state aid to Brunswick education has increased overall in recent years. He added that he “played a big hand in the amendment” to a statewide school consolidation law that allowed Brunswick not to consolidate.
“Charlie and I and Alex are up here (advocating for Brunswick) on a daily basis,” he said. “We’ve certainly testified and worked in our caucuses as hard as we can trying to alleviate some of our issues.”
Gerzofsky also pointed out that the Legislature has yet to approve any of the cuts proposed in Baldacci’s budget, including to aid to education.
‘Leave our egos at the door’
Amid the accusations and criticism, however, Perzanoski said Priest contacted him last week to try to arrange a meeting of legislators and School Board members. Priest said Thursday that that meeting is now tentatively scheduled for Feb. 25. This morning, Gerzofsky said that he and Alfond, Senate chairman of the Legislature’s Education Committee, will also attend Thursday’s meeting with the Brunswick School Board.
Priest said it’s crucial that legislators and school officials work together to address the financial crisis facing Brunswick schools.
“I think the real question we need to answer is, presumably (the cuts) are the result of the application of the school funding formula, but we need to make sure Brunswick is not being hit disproportionately,” he said. “If that’s true, is there another area to look at that might enable us to increase the amount of money the state would give to the schools?”
Priest said he hopes members of the Brunswick School Board will visit the State House to speak to Education and Appropriations committee members.
“It’s important for us to be able to show that the town is united behind the delegation to try to help address the situation,” he said.
Meanwhile, Perzanoski is scheduled to meet this morning with Jim Rier, the Maine Department of Education’s director of finance and operations, to discuss how (state aid) is calculated for reimbursement to the town “and ideas for me to go from here,” he said.
Ultimately, the superintendent said, the only way for school officials and legislators to make progress is “to leave our egos at the door.”
