During our last meeting, the Rockport Select Board had a brief discussion about whether to proffer a collective judgment on the upcoming Middle School referendum. We decided that we were not in a position, as a board, to do so. We neither had an official liaison to the independently elected School Board, nor did we have any overlapping official responsibilities. Moreover, we recognized that each board was doing as well as they could to responsibly carry out their charge and we didn’t feel the need to add our two cents. Apparently our colleagues in Camden felt otherwise.

While I support anybody’s right to publish their opinions, well-founded or otherwise, the Camden Select Board might have gone a bit too far. From the factual inaccuracies that have already been addressed by several knowledgably people, to the passive-aggressive paternalism of the sign-off, the Camden Select Board may be missing a very important learning opportunity. They seem to be minimizing the independence of the two boards. They seem to be suffering from the notion that the Select Board is more equal than the school board.

I have been honored to have been elected to positions on both the school board and the Select Board (Rockport) and I can assure you that the school board job is four times harder and half as ego-boosting. In the case of the Middle School, the school board HAS done its homework. And the cries for “more dialog” belie the fact that the dialog is going on NOW. This is it. If there is a positive vote, the project will go on in a timely manner disrupting only a single academic year using bonds floated at historic interest lows.

However, the Camden Select Board doesn’t seem to leave much room to listen to the voters. They deliver the edict that while “we all want the best of everything, we can’t afford that.” It’s really a matter of priorities, isn’t it? Each Select Board influences their town’s budget to reflect their priorities. The school board certainly does the same. For them, other priorities have pushed the Middle School issue down the road for almost a decade. Now, in their minds, the biggest priority is getting CRMS up to snuff. But how do we know what the ultimate priorities are for the voter? The historic overwhelming support for the school budgets suggest that perhaps the taxpayer ultimately places education above the pet projects of each town and their Select Boards. I submit the proposal that if the Middle school referendum passes, it is incumbent upon each Select Board to recognize that perhaps education is actually more important than those issues that the Select boards control.

Maybe it’s time for the Select Boards to work together with the school boards to create a long term plan that takes into account large fiscal “hits” like the initial funding of a new building. Maybe it’s time for each board to give up the “us-vs-them” modus operandi and instead look out for what is best for the whole community. 

Geoff Parker lives in Rockport, and is a member of the Rockport Select Board