RESULTS OF SAD 63 BUDGET PLANNING COMMITTEE SESSION

Tonight was the last night the SAD 63 Budget & Finance Committee (BFC) met in conjunction with the Financial Advisory Board (FAB). By the time the meeting ended at 7pm, the BFC had it's recommendations ready to take to the full School Board for it's monthly meeting April 26.

Attendees at tonight's meeting were: Chair of the Board, Therese Anderson; Jackie Smallwood, Citizen Rep from Holden; Selectman Harvey from Holden; Mario Teisl, Chairman of the BFC and School Board member from Holden; Interim Superintendent Ray Hart; Sylvia Ellis, BFC School Board member from Holden; Ralph Russell, citizen rep from Eddington; Selectman Baker from Eddington; Don Varnum, BFC and School Board member from Holden; and Yvonne Mitchell, SAD 63 Business Manager. Selectwoman Peasly and Fred Rosenberg, citizen rep from Clifton were both absent.

The FAB members apparently met earlier this week, or last week, with the Business Manager. From that meeting, the members prepared a handout for tonight's meeting. In addition to a narrative statement, the FAB offered a total of 14 suggestions - four of a monetary nature and ten of a non-monetary nature to help with the current and future budgetary situations.

Prior to the FAB's suggestions, the drafted Budget was $445,865 over and above last year's budget. This includes the $178,000 ($180,000) tax penalty the state intends to charge SAD 63. NOTE: The penalty will be assessed as follows (according to Hart) - $96,000 from Holden; $55,000 from Eddington; and $25,000 from Clifton. Hart also stated that the $6.1 million statewide budget, that Commissioner Gendron is planning on having for the state's school's RSUs, is dependent on collecting these tax penalties from districts such as SAD 63. With that, it would not seem very likely that any district applying for an exemption would have much success unless our legislative Representatives (Senator Richard Rosen and Representative Ben Pratt went to bat for us. Not likely in this writer's opinion.

Of the monetary suggestions, they were as follows:

1. Reduce the Special Education program budget by $50,000. (the FAB's original suggestion was that the cut relate specifically to Special Ed. Techs; however the BFC determined their recommendation to the full School Board will be that the cuts be only in the amount allocated to the Program Area and that it will be up to the Special Ed. Director to determine where and how the cuts are applied.)

2. Cut the Part-time Librarian at Holbrook Middle School - and seek out parent volunteers or retirees in the communities that may be interested in running the library. (There was quite a bit of discussion re: this because the Holbrook principal felt the individual in the position is helping is a wide variety of school programs and that cutting the paid position for a volunteer would seriously effect the way those programs were run. A Special Ed. teacher also spoke up and said the current librarian is very helpful to the Special Ed students and providing a liaison to the Bangor Public Library. NOTE: While the FAB presented this as a Part-time position, other sources report to this writer that the individual in the librarian position is a full-time employee at the school - as a librarian, and that that occurred as an administrative decision by Hart late last summer. Interesting???

As a result of the discussion, the BFC decided its recommendation to the full School Board will be to take no position on the librarian position but that $17,300 be deducted from the Pre-K through 8 (General Instruction) cost center in the proposed budget - leaving it up to the administration to find the way to cut those costs.

3. Cut facilities/maintenance staff and central office staff by $20,000. This was intended to relate to alleged overtime being paid to staff in those areas. However, the FAB pointed out that current financial reporting does not separate overtime costs from regular wages & salaries' costs. The FAB made a strong recommendation that overtime be reduced in future budgets. There seems to be an expectation that teachers should be able to get their classrooms in better shape via students cleaning up after themselves rather than depending on the custodial staff to do that.

4. The FAB suggested that $75,000 could be saved by combining the incoming 3rd grade at Holden School with the incoming 4th grade class at Eddington School (because those classes are expected to be very small in number). It was suggested that should the total number of students (in that combined class) exceed 25, an Ed. Tech. should be hired to assist the teacher. The caveat was expressed that should the overall class size exceed 25-28, this suggestion may need to be re-evaluated.

The BFC members had quite a discussion re: all of these recommendations before coming up with its' final recommendation to the full School Board. The Bottom Line seemed to be that items #2 and #4 be combined with the direction that district administration work out where and how to make the cuts. With these additional $162,300 in cuts, the proposed budget would be $283,565 higher than last year. But that also includes the $180,000 tax penalty.

It was noted by individuals that the district currently pays out $12-19 thousand annually for staff committee stipends and another $7 thousand for B sports programs. Stipends are currently under review as a means of cutting costs.

It should be mentioned in the discussion that preceded the introduction of these items, the spokesperson for the FAB reviewed several issues that had been discussed - some of which had been raised at the public meetings and have been subsequently taken off the table. For public information, they are:

A. No cuts in Special Programs, such as music, arts, etc. (According to some BFC members, this issue never was on the table, although I heard it reported as such by a School Board member so someone was thinking it was on the table. But it's off the table now.)

B. Health insurance cost-sharing with staff are off the table this year - but they may be on the table next year because it is the norm in the world and there will be more cuts coming next year.

C. The Four-Day school week is off the table.

D. Reconfiguration of the school bus schedule is off the table for safety reasons.

E. The Central Office move from Holbrook Middle School to Holden School is off the table.

F. While the FAB suggested the Part-time bookkeeper in Central Services might be a position to cut (or cut back) for cost-savings, the current Business Manager strongly objected. NOTE: While every other area, as well as the taxpayers, are taking cuts, there appears to be no cuts or sacrifices being made at all by Central Office. Interesting???

The FAB's Non-Monetary Suggestions to the Budget were:

1. For the district to challenge legal opinions for recapturing high school tuition dollars. Several other districts are doing this, including Orrington and other nearby areas.

2. Form a Community Reconfiguring Committee immediately to begin studying the best options for consolidation/reconfiguration (and to be better prepared for next year's budget issues). (This idea seemed to be well received.)

3. The School Board and Leadership fight to have the penalty reevaluated (for numerous reasons, some of which Hart stated would not fly).

4. Reassess Special Education's current programs and learning results.

5. Revisit the employee's contribution to their insurance benefits for future years.

6. Breakout overtime paid v. regular wages paid in future years during the draft budget phase.

7. Reevaluate the Stipend Program.

8. Consider reconfiguration of the Principals within our schools next year. (Do we hear Eddington School being closed here??? Yes, we do.)

9. Implement more parent involvement to help offset cuts to staff.

10. Continue to offer early incentives to staff who may be considering retirement in the near future.

The first four recommendations, with the notations mentioned above, will be put before the School Board (April 26th - we need to check which school will host the meeting - at 6:30pm). It would really be good to see as many people start showing up for School Board meetings as have been at these budget planning meetings. !

And then there will be the Public Hearing in May as well as the communities VOTE in JUNE. As far as this writer is concerned, unless we see some cuts in Central Services, I'll be voting "NO" on the budget. If teachers are to be cut, and supplies to be cut to the bare bone, and the taxpayers still picking up more of the costs... then the Business Office can pitch in and share some of the pain, too.

NOW FOR SOME OF THE GOOD NEWS:

While many of the "top and high income school districts" failed to even meet the State's AVERAGE in the math and reading tests this year (even Brewer was in the 40 percent range and Bangor did no better), The Eddington Elementary School ranked 72% above the State average; Holden Elementary School ranked 73%; and Holbrook Middle School ranked 68%. Seems, for all of the SAD 63 recalcitrance in this blasted consolidation mess, the teachers, principals, and support staff are doing a heck of a lot better in our little neck of the woods than those sheep who followed the threats and empty promises of Augusta.

Write to Senator Richard Rosen and/or Representative Ben Pratt to express YOUR thoughts on this mess they have created for us, the people who elected them to represent US. It's us taxpayers who are paying their salaries and benefits, too. (BTW - Rosen is up for re-election this November.) Their addresses are:

Senator Richard Rosen; 3 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0003
Representative Ben Pratt; 2 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333

AS TO THE ORRINGTON/DEDHAM "SITUATION". They are still communicating with the Commissioner but appear to expect permission to consolidate with just the two districts. According to someone who was at Orrington School Board's recent meeting, that Board's Chairman is reported to have made the statement that as long as he is Chair, Orrington will never consolidate with SAD 63. Whether the townspeople of Orrington - the taxpayers in that town, know of that individual's personal position - or what it will be costing them to educate the children of that town in future years - is unknown. But when there are fewer than five taxpayers who show up at that district's School Board meetings, chances are those taxpayers don't know any more than the people in SAD 63 who don't attend our school board meetings.

Just something to ponder. Maybe people in our towns should be making some phone calls.