The following is a press release from the Maine State Board of Education.
AUGUSTA – The newly appointed State Charter School Commission held its first meeting Tuesday and elected a chair and vice chair.
Commission members elected Jim Banks, chair of the State Board of Education, as chair and William Shuttleworth of Camden, superintendent of schools for Five Town CSD and MSAD 28, as the vice chair. Six of the seven members of the Commission were sworn in. The seventh, Lynda Doyle, was formally approved by the State Board of Education on Wednesday.
The Commission will help shape public charter schools in Maine, the 41st state to adopt legislation to allow them. Maine’s law allows the Commission to authorize up to 10 public charter schools statewide during the law’s first 10 years. Local school boards can authorize additional public charter schools that don’t count toward the Commission’s 10-school limit.
At its inaugural meeting, the Commission reviewed the charter school law and learned about the role of the Commission and the role of the Maine Department of Education, and members also discussed their own policies and procedures and other administrative topics.
The next meeting of the Commission will be January 18, from 9 to 11 a.m. in Augusta.
Mary Becker | Maine State Board of Education | 207-624-6616
It is unfortunate that the new State Charter School Commission has selected an individual that draws Maine State Retirement pay simultaneously with a generous superintendent’s salary to co-chair. Placing such an individual in this role silently endorses the concurrent receipt of retirement and active pay for the same position. Although the Maine legislature enacted legislation enabling this under the King administration it is damaging to the taxpayers’ pocketbooks and morale. Public education is already under-funded; this double-dipping pays the working “retiree” ahead of funding public education and is undermining public trust.