Exempting Cape Elizabeth from the state’s new school consolidation plan might strike some as preferential treatment for an affluent town that simply doesn’t want the quality of its schools to be affected by a plan designed to save the state money.

However, excluding Cape schools from the latest version of the law makes sense. And, even though the new law won’t force Scarborough and South Portland schools to consolidate with any of the surrounding districts, it also makes sense for these communities to seek ways to work together to save money or offer students more options.

Earlier this month, the governor signed the School Administration Reorganization law, which will consolidate the state’s existing 290 school districts into about 80. Under the law, communities must create districts with at least 2,500 students.

With more than 3,000 students in each district, Scarborough and South Portland will be largely unaffected by the new law, although the budgets for each district will now have to be approved by voters, rather than just school boards and town or city councils. However, without an exemption, Cape Elizabeth would be forced to consolidate its schools with those of another community.

Cape Elizabeth and four other school districts – Yarmouth, Brunswick and School Administrative Districts 75 in Topsham and 22 in Hampden – could be eligible for exemptions from the law, despite the fact that each district had fewer than 2,500 students, because they qualified as high-performing and highly efficient.

This exemption, in the case of Cape Elizabeth, makes sense. If a the town can prove its students are performing far above the level of students in other districts and for a lower cost, then it has little to gain from a wholesale consolidation with a neighboring district.

Cape Elizabeth has found ways to run its schools efficiently, most notably through the so-called one-town concept, whereby the school district shares employees with the town. A town employee, for example, keeps track of the bus schedules for the schools, and the school finance director performs some of the same duties for the town. The schools have also felt the pressure to maintain efficiencies from above, in the form of a spending cap, which has been the subject of so much debate during the last two budget cycles.

However, Cape Elizabeth’s success should not stand in the way of further progress. If the one-town concept has been successful there, why couldn’t it be even more successful on a broader scale?

As one proponent of consolidation, Sen. Lynn Bromley of South Portland pointed out, if Cape Elizabeth were to merge its school districts with schools in the neighboring city, it could offer its students Latin – something that was cut from Cape Elizabeth’s budget this year. The question is, why couldn’t Cape students get Latin lessons in South Portland schools regardless of whether the two districts share the same superintendent?

Schools in all three of these communities should be seeking ways to consolidate in small and large ways that could provide students with better educations and save taxpayers money. As the state moves to consolidate more schools, that will give all three of these districts the perfect justification to remain independent – they are already operating in the spirit of the law.

Brendan Moran, editor

Exempting Cape Elizabeth from the state’s new school consolidation plan might strike some as preferential treatment for an affluent town that simply doesn’t want the quality of its schools to be affected by a plan designed to save the state money.

However, excluding Cape schools from the latest version of the law makes sense. And, even though the new law won’t force Scarborough and South Portland schools to consolidate with any of the surrounding districts, it also makes sense for these communities to seek ways to work together to save money or offer students more options.

Earlier this month, the governor signed the School Administration Reorganization law, which will consolidate the state’s existing 290 school districts into about 80. Under the law, communities must create districts with at least 2,500 students.

With more than 3,000 students in each district, Scarborough and South Portland will be largely unaffected by the new law, although the budgets for each district will now have to be approved by voters, rather than just school boards and town or city councils. However, without an exemption, Cape Elizabeth would be forced to consolidate its schools with those of another community.

Cape Elizabeth and four other school districts – Yarmouth, Brunswick and School Administrative Districts 75 in Topsham and 22 in Hampden – could be eligible for exemptions from the law, despite the fact that each district had fewer than 2,500 students, because they qualified as high-performing and highly efficient.

This exemption, in the case of Cape Elizabeth, makes sense. If a the town can prove its students are performing far above the level of students in other districts and for a lower cost, then it has little to gain from a wholesale consolidation with a neighboring district.

Cape Elizabeth has found ways to run its schools efficiently, most notably through the so-called one-town concept, whereby the school district shares employees with the town. A town employee, for example, keeps track of the bus schedules for the schools, and the school finance director performs some of the same duties for the town. The schools have also felt the pressure to maintain efficiencies from above, in the form of a spending cap, which has been the subject of so much debate during the last two budget cycles.

However, Cape Elizabeth’s success should not stand in the way of further progress. If the one-town concept has been successful there, why couldn’t it be even more successful on a broader scale?

As one proponent of consolidation, Sen. Lynn Bromley of South Portland pointed out, if Cape Elizabeth were to merge its school districts with schools in the neighboring city, it could offer its students Latin – something that was cut from Cape Elizabeth’s budget this year. The question is, why couldn’t Cape students get Latin lessons in South Portland schools regardless of whether the two districts share the same superintendent?

Schools in all three of these communities should be seeking ways to consolidate in small and large ways that could provide students with better educations and save taxpayers money. As the state moves to consolidate more schools, that will give all three of these districts the perfect justification to remain independent – they are already operating in the spirit of the law.

Brendan Moran, editor