Did You Vote for Coercion?

Waterville Superintendent Eric Haley finds himself in a difficult spot these days; apparently he's reviled, if not damned, no matter which way he turns.

You can get a sense of his dilemma by reading this article ("State tells school officials they must justify withdrawal from merger talks") from Tuesday's Morning Sentinel.

Waterville has been engaged in good faith discussions with area districts for some time. Anyway they figure it, it will cost Waterville more money to consolidate than does the status quo.

One of the surest ways to control costs, a commenter suggests, is to keep control of costs (so much as possible) local.

The responsible action from the Board and the Superintendent is to refuse to go along with a greater burden on Waterville taxpayers.

For their troubles they get jawboned by an unelected bureaucrat:

Connerty-Marin claims Waterville spends $446,000 less on teacher salaries than the EPS allocation. "They have more money they could use for teaching," he said. "We don't tell them how to spend. They're taking money they could be spending on teaching and spending it on something else."

So much for consolidation having the goal of saving money!

(For a related article, see "School union intact despite Waterville's pull-out" from the Wednesday Morning Sentinel.)