[Schoolconsolidation] Questions Surrounding School Consolidation

[Douglas Sanborn]

All,

I have attended several meetings with the school board
and with each RSU group.  While both RSU's have
strengths, I have come up with a list of key questions
each voter should ask themselves prior to voting. 
There are a couple important things to remember when
casting your vote.  A: This decision will last a
lifetime.  It will affect more than your family,
friends and relatives currently living here.  B: The
choice of high school will still remain after the
consolidation has passed.

1. Do you really want your impressionable child going
to middle school on an open campus with the high
school students? 

2. Sleep is one of the most important aspects of a
child’s learning and development.  Should he/she be
subject to riding on a bus for nearly an hour EACH
WAY?
 
3. Won’t the cost of those commutes undoubtedly rise
quicker than our budgets will allow? 

4. Should our children be dragged through a facility
that is old, outdated and in need of repair (MLD) when
we have brand new facilities available in very close
proximity (Kennebunk Elementary and Middle School of
the Kennebunks)?  If MLD is closed and if the contract
is not renewed, then work to help raise the proper
funding to keep it open and provide our greatest
assets, our children, the proper learning environment
to compete globally. 

5. When you have the option of sending your child to
the #2 rated school system in the state (according to
MEA results), and the only to achieve the
International Baccalaureate designation, versus
another system that is consistently average or BELOW
state average, which do you instinctively choose? Only
the Kennebunk school system has accreditation from New
England Association of Schools and Colleges at
elementary, middle and high school levels.
http://www.neasc.org/roster/rosterpe.htm#ME
http://www.neasc.org/roster/rosterpm.htm#ME
http://www.neasc.org/roster/psme.htm

6. When you decided to live in Arundel, did you make
the school departments an integral part of that
decision? 

7. Won’t a better school system contribute to the
resale value and the ability to sell your home in the
future? 

8. Does the socio-economic make up of a school system
contribute to the success of its attendees? 

9. If you want your child to go to another high school
other than the appointed, they will still have that
option.  What won’t be a viable option for most
families is to pay for their child to go to another
elementary and middle school.  Education is more
important the earlier it is incurred
i.e. elementary
school is actually more important than high school
because it is there that students learn to be a
student.

Thank you for your time.

Doug Sanborn



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