Editor:

    Ward Peck’s recent editorial (“NIMBY isn’t always
wrong,” June 15, 2007) opposing consolidation of the South
Portland/Cape Elizabeth school board can be forgiven because of his
youth. Many of us in South Portland have known for at least twenty
years that the inequitable property tax formulations at the state level
have resulted in unfair transfer of South Portland’s tax revenue to
Cape Elizabeth, Falmouth and Yarmouth, etc.

    One would hope that consolidation of school boards
would end this inequitable transfer. At a more simple level, it would
seem reasonable to consolidate Cape Elizabeth, South Portland and
Scarborough into one contiguous school district.

    Furthermore the current superintendent and the
previous superintendent spent an inordinate amount of time and energy
trying to close neighborhood schools in direct opposition to several
community wide votes to keep neighborhood schools open.

    If the superintendents were doing their job
correctly they would be spending most of their time developing the
educational assets of the parents and integrating these assets into the
school system. This simple and most important program has never been
implemented in South Portland much to the dismay of the parents who
wanted to see the school system develop as a community enterprise.

    South Portland, Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth could easily be served by one superintendent.

Douglas Uraneck

South Portland