Concerns About the Accreditation at Lisbon High School

Chair Bowie and Councilors,

I attended the School Committee’s NEASC presentation last Monday. While you voted to send the referendum to ballot, albeit grudgingly, not a single Town Councilor or the Town Manager apparently felt it was important enough of an issue to attend and receive direct information and have their questions answered. I have also witnessed only one Town Councilor at a tour of the building.

According to the 2000 census, there were 3,608 households out of which 34.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them. Let me repeat, this group of people make up 34.1% of your constituents. Children under 18 make up 26.5% of the population, and this group has no voice representing them on this council! I’m also willing to bet that parents of school-aged children make up the largest percentage of active volunteers in town.

I am currently a Boy Scout Leader, Chair of the Library Governing Board, Co-president LHS Athletic Boosters’ Club. My husband and I donated the Bookworm Bend Children’s Garden to the Lisbon Library (and which we still maintain weekly throughout the spring, summer, and fall). I’ve also been a Big Brother/Big Sister mentor. I do these things because I passionately care for the children of this town, but I’m feeling inclined to donate my time elsewhere if I can see my efforts are appreciated and supported.

This sentiment is shared by others as well. Good teachers will not want to work in an unaccredited school. They will also want to go where their talents are valued and rewarded, and where they feel they can make a difference.

I chose to live in a small town, and picked Lisbon because of the effort I found being put into the school department and its programs. Lisbon is very close to Durham, Lewiston, and Topsham, and parents could find it easy enough to live just over the town line and send their children to those school districts where their children can have access to “appropriate” facilities, and after last week’s presentation, I’m talking about the safety and health of those children.

From Good buildings, better schools: An economic stimulus opportunity with long-term benefits by Mary Filardo “Science education would benefit from facility-related improvements, whether for safety or for quality. The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) recommends that students spend 50% of their time in hands-on, inquiry-based science. In their guide to planning science facilities, the NSTA states: "Good science programs require the uniquely adaptable learning space we call a laboratory, as well as access to both indoor and outdoor space for research, environmental studies, and reflection. Yet the vast majority of communities moving toward the Standards will find their progress limited by the facilities available in their schools" (Motz et al. 2007).”

In Lisbon, our chemistry room has capped gas lines, and students work with portable burners in a room without a fire suppression system.

Again from Good buildings, better schools:

“Poor school design and facility conditions can lead to "sick building syndrome," according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA 2000). Poor ventilation can boost rates of asthma and respiratory illness due to m old and allergies (EPA 2000). The temperature and humidity in classrooms can affect children's health and motivation.”

in Lisbon, we had our own mini-epidemic of flu ravage the high school this winter and early spring, and after seeing the conditions throughout parts of the school building, I have no doubt this increased the risk to our kids.

“Building design and facility conditions have also been associated with teacher motivation and student achievement. For example, classroom lighting and thermal comfort are commonly cited by teachers as determinants of their own morale and the engagement of their students

Two studies (Lewis 2000; Buckley, Schneider, and Shang 2004)—one in Los Angeles and the other among Milwaukee schools—directly observed school conditions and controlled for pupil and neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics, school size, and students' reported motivation levels. Facility conditions and maintenance variables included conditions of lockers, visible graffiti, and frequency of cleaning classrooms. The studies found higher reading scores among elementary and high school students in better-maintained schools, after accounting for the other influences.

Technology should be available for instruction, security, and administration. School buildings need voice, video, and data highways throughout their facilities and electrical upgrades to support the computers, audio-enhanced classroom technology, smart boards, and other classroom technology aids that have the potential to help close achievement gaps and improve the basic quality of teaching and the productivity of teachers. Among the cohort of students who can benefit most from education technology are special needs students.”

Nick Jones, a senior at Lisbon, has recently been accepted to Purdue and Norwich, and is waiting to hear from Notre Dame. His parents assure me that if he had come from an unaccredited high school his application would have sat at the bottom of the pile. Institutions set their own policies and criteria for admissions and awarding financial aid. Students who graduate from an unaccredited school may face one more obstacle when applying to post-secondary education.

As to the future of a town without an accredited high school, why would our children stay in this town and raise their families here after seeing how little this town values them? You are putting limits on their futures by being so apathetic to the results of the NEASC accreditation.

Visioning Sessions would become a joke, as businesses are unable to attract quality workers. As businesses and residents leave, tax rolls will decrease. As property tax income to the town declines, monies for other infrastructure will continue to decrease. Sewer lines still need to be fixed and upgraded, roads need to be plowed and maintained, regardless if every other home is empty.

In the long run, we will be shouldering a heavier tax burden, even without paying for a renovated or new school building.

This is the most expensive issue ever being brought before the taxpayers in the twenty years I’ve lived in town, if not ever.

I for one am tired of taxation without representation. We will remember your involvement come Election Day.

Signed,

Robin P. Tupper

What You Should Know about the Relationship between Good Public Schools and Property Values

• Good schools are among the top five factors that maintain and increase property values in communities.
• Realtor data show that the presence of good schools can increase the value of a home by 10 to 15 percent.
• Maintaining good schools is a key strategy to maintain neighborhood property values. This is particularly true of the physical appearance of school facilities.
• School spending per pupil is a factor that raises the market value of homes. 4
• Local school district taxes are benefit taxes—they produce benefits that include good education systems and appreciation in home property values. Local school district spending on education has more benefit to homeowners than state spending on schools. Local school tax payments are recovered in the form of higher market values when a homeowner sells their property. 5

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[1] Dennis Rodkin, “How Does Your Town Rate?” Chicago (March 2003); Walter Updegrave, “How Real Estate Really Builds Wealth,” Money (June 2003); “Your Home’s Value,”MSN, houseandhome.msn.com/selling/yourhomesvalue.aspx.

[2] Tim Simmers, “Good Schools Boost Property Values by 10 Percent or More,” San Mateo County Times (August 19, 2003).

[3] Kenneth W. Edwards, The Homeseller’s Survival Guide (1995).

[4] Lisa Barrow and Cecilia Rouse, “Using Market Valuation to Assess Public School Spending,” NBER Working Paper No. 9054 (January 2003). Wallace E. Oates, “The Effects of Property Taxes and Local Public Spending on Property Values,” Journal of Political Economy (Nov./Dec. 1969).

[5] William A. Fishel, “Homevoters, Municipal Corporate Governance, and the Benefit View of the Property Tax,” National Tax Journal (March 2001).