March 14, 2008
Commissioner, Susan A. Gendron
Maine Department of Education
23 State House Station
Commissioner Gendron:
Please accept, for your consideration, the Reorganization Plan enclosed for the reorganization of the Litchfield School Department, Sabattus School Department, Wales School Department and Oak Hill CSD #15 School Administrative Units into a single Regional School Unit.
Your letter of December 14, 2007 was received. Your comments were appreciated and helped provided guidance as the Reorganization Planning Committee continued its work on completing the “Plan”. As you can understand, a lot of thought and effort has gone into the Plan we are submitting today. We believe that we have performed our duties diligently while never forgetting the needs of our students and citizens throughout this process. We look forward to your permission to take this Plan to our communities for their approval. As soon as we hear of your concurrence with the Plan we will schedule public meetings in each of the three towns to more inform our citizens of it contents and impact on school operations.
The Committee would like to recognize the outstanding support provided by Mr. William (Bill) Cumming, our facilitator provided by your office. Thank you for this excellent assistance.
Our Plan is submitted as a complete Plan in and of itself. However, only new information is provided in Exhibits that provide supporting documentation (minutes, etc.). Changes to our initial submission of the Plan were made only to paragraph 6, per your comments. We have also corrected the total student count from the initial number of 1,600 to the correct number you provided of 1,601 on the “Submittal Sheet”.
While many in our community may not still agree that forced consolidation is going to benefit the students or local taxpayers, we on the Committee understand the law and our need to comply. We believe that we have performed our work well, and will support the Plan’s passage by our citizens in the referendum to be held on June 10, 2008. We look forward to your acceptance of our Plan and permission to continue with the approval process.
Sincerely,
Robert E. English
Chair,
Litchfield, Sabattus,