Fiscal Responsibility: I have been an outspoken advocate for exploring ways to save money, including pushing for a community-wide review with our sending districts to explore areas where we may share services. These meetings are finally taking place. In addition, the Governor just announced a $2 million funding pool for use by school districts to pay for feasibility studies for school district regionalization. While I personally do not know if district regionalization would be appropriate for our community at this time… I do believe we should take advantage of the state funding to determine what, if any, fiscal and educational benefits may occur through a formal shared services agreement or outright regionalization. Many residents have commented to me about the number of school districts in such a small area. The state is now providing us with an opportunity to find out if there are any real fiscal and educational benefits to consolidation… or not. Getting the answer to this question costs us nothing and ensures we are doing our “due diligence” on behalf of the residents.