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May 15th 2008

Oh Pembroke, Pembroke, what are we to do with you?

Guest Editorial by Brian R. Caseau.

(April 18, 2003)  To call the relationship between the Silver Lake Regional School Committee and our departing Pembroke neighbors acrimonious would be a considerable understatement. This divorce is reaching its bitter stage and we’ve still got a year to go.

We’re talking of course, about the potential limitation of Pembroke students participating in our graduation day ceremony. The students who are now in purgatory have risen through the ranks of the Silver Lake Regional School District and deserve the recognition of their peers, their parents, and the people most appreciative of them for what has come to be their proudest moment yet: Graduation.

Does the committee, or for that matter anyone, have the justification or the fortitude to take that away? I propose to you the answer is no.

Weeks ago, I succumbed to the passions of a district in turmoil, having just learned of impending teacher layoffs as a result of Governor Romney’s detrimental budgetary restraints. What then happens, when in the throes of an unpersuasive dispute, which could simply be rectified by an overview of a recently signed Regional Agreement?

Involuntary reactions are knee-jerk. In the face of intransigence, our passions often become uncompromising. The position to inhibit partaking in graduation evolved, as a vehicle for Pembroke parents to confront their boards and question the dispute and settle the half a million-dollar impact the district would have to absorb. It has once again resurfaced as a showdown where the students are placed squarely in the middle of a political bludgeoning. Where did the leadership go?

Resolve to this dispute does have a solution. At Pembroke’s 2002 Town Meeting, the $545k in question was never appropriately secured to sustain their proportion of the regional budget. The majority of this figure is $100k appropriated for transitional planners to allow for a smooth transition (?) for separation. Pembroke voted in the affirmative when they were still part of the School Committee, as well as utilized this service. Also in question is a $300k transportation reimbursement, which is clearly outlined in an agreement signed by both parties amicably less than a year ago. In the end, the bill will be compensated yet the damage inflicted could be irreversible.

In what has grown to be an on-again, off-again, on-again line drawn in the sand, it is every single student who loses. Both parties can argue blame but what do we accomplish by doing so? It matters not which side assumes the leadership role and initiates a meeting to negotiate resolution. What does matter is our students are worth more than a pawn in a regional game of chess. I am confident we will reach an agreement if we stop posturing long enough to allow common sense to become the better part of valor.

Caseau is an elected Kingston member of the Silver Lake Regional School Committe.. 

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