To the editor:
…The fact that one needs a boat to come and go from islands does, in some significant ways, make islands unique. But it does not follow that in all matters islands are unique.
School consolidation is one of the latter. Issues. Your characterization (WWF May 07) that the governor’s “plan” is “ambitious” is far too faint. The plan is insane, poorly thought out, destructive and ill-suited to achieve its stated objectives. “Ambitious” is a timid adjective that here has no meaning.
School consolidation threatens to wreck small, struggling communities all over this state, not just on islands. Go to the web page of the Adams School in Castine or Greenville High School and see if they look all that different from island schools. The only way that small communities in this state can turn back this tsunami is if we all work together until the end of the day. I fear that murmuring noises by the governor and commissioner about the special nature of islands has served to quiet some of your strong, well-organized opposition to these bills. I would like to suggest you should not let that happen.
The schools on whose boards I serve share Union 98 with the Cranberries, Frenchboro and Swan’s. Most people on these islands know that in this respect, they are not “islands.” Their success depends on us working together to provide the leadership all our schools need. They are still very much in the fight to turn back harm to Maine’s schools, no matter where they are located…
Gail Marshall
Mount Desert