However, I reserved the right to address specific items contained in the SAC as related to my legislative district and the State in general. In particular, I voted for the amendments to the SAC plan that allowed greater flexibility for school systems to file alternative plans for SAC. When those amendments to the SAC bill that were beneficial to my legislative district (i.e. minimum receiver school districts) were defeated, I voted for the repeal of school consolidation.

When the repeal vote failed, I then voted for amendments to the supplemental budget (made in 2008) that would have reduced the economic burden to "minimum receiver" school administrations or school administrations that would pay more into the system as a result of being tied to a new administrative district.

Then, when these amendments to the supplemental budget failed to pass, I voted against final passage of the supplemental budget. I continued to work with both Kittery and Wells/Ogunquit school districts to scure approval of an Alternative Plan to school reorganization. In the final days of the 123rd Legislature and on behalf of the York System I met with State Education Commissioner Gendron to lobby for York's Alternative Plan filing and to seek assurances that LD 2323, An Act to Remove Barriers to the Reorganization of School Administrative Units, would not work against or be used against York's proposed Alternative Plan.

All the while, I supported no cuts to teacher's salaries and no cuts to direct educational expenses for children which as a matter of policy I stand behind.

I was also appointed House Chair of the Post Secondary Education Commission for Low Wage and Low-skilled Adults, whose task it was to identify solutions and opportunities to provide greater access to community colleges and help improve Maine's adult skill set for its future economy.