SALEM — More than fifty stakeholders gathered at Mount Abram High School on Nov. 29 for the Strategic Planning Committee workshop meeting. These stakeholders included many of the members of the MSAD 58 school board, along with parents, teachers, and students.
There have been a number of strategic planning meetings over the last few months, reviewing the results from a cost-efficiency study performed within the district and discussing options for the future.
Due to decrease in state subsidy, the district faced a $1 million increase to the local taxes for the 2021-2022 fiscal year. In order to cover the increase for the current budget year, the board used federal COVID-19 relief grant funds to make up the difference. However, those funds will not be available for the next budget year, and these strategic planning workshops have been focused on finding ways to save $1 million. The conversation has turned from restructuring the distribution of students between the district schools, to the possibility of closing a school and sending those students elsewhere.
The conversations are hard and the decision, whatever it is, will be a difficult decision for the board, the district, and the students.
On Nov. 29, Superintendent Todd Sanders presented his findings on two potential scenarios: closing MTA and tuitioning the MSAD 58 students out to another district, and closing one of the community (elementary) schools. He went through a breakdown of costs and savings for each scenario and stressed that the figures are informed estimates, not set in stone. The administrative team helped identify costs and savings.
If the district moved forward with closing MTA, there would be a potential $3.1 million reduction in cost from removing salaries, benefits, stipends, materials, equipment, supplies, building maintenance, and food service.
However, the district retains the responsibility to educate the students of taxpayers within the district; of MTA’s 213 students, 153 are taxpayer students and the remaining 60 are students from the unorganized territories or students tuitioned from other districts.
Tuitioning the 153 students out of district would incur costs of tuition, estimated at $12,000 per student, along with special education costs; these expenses were estimated at roughly $1.9 million.
There would also be loss of revenue from the county, state, and other districts, for the UT students and tuitioned students currently attending MTA. This figure was estimated around $856,000.
Subtracting the anticipated loss of revenue and incurred costs, closing MTA and sending the high school students out of district would only save the district an estimated $300,000.
Under this scenario, if the district offered school choice, they would not legally have to provide transportation; if they tuitioned the whole student body to one of the two neighboring districts with capacity for students, Carrabec or Mount Blue, they would have to provide transportation. That figure was a little less than $150,000 for bus runs to and from each elementary school to the out-of-district high school, which further cut into the estimated cost savings.
The district is in an unusual situation with the high school; not only does MSAD 58 have the largest population of UT students of any district in the state, they are also the only district in the state with a public school located in an unorganized territory. As such, the conversation about potentially closing the high school has to involve representatives from the Department of Education, along with legal counsel. Sanders will be meeting with these representatives on Dec. 13.
Board member Sue Pratt, who went through these conversations several years ago when she worked as the superintendent of MSAD 58, said she thought Sanders may have an inaccurate figure in his loss of student revenue with the above scenario, and that they may not lose as much as he projected; Sanders agreed to look into it further when he met with representatives from the state on Dec. 13.
Closing the high school could have additional impact on students and families; stakeholders voiced concerns such as student dropout, mental health impacts, increased distances for parents to pick up students in case of emergency, and difficulty with transporting students to and from drop-off locations.
The figures for the second scenario, closing one of the three elementary (community) schools within the district, were based on the average costs between each of the three schools; no recommendation or suggestion was made with regards to which school may be closed.
The average costs savings from closing an elementary school would be around $1.8 million. There would be little to no incurred costs from closing an elementary school, as they wouldn’t lose students or tuition revenue. There may be some additional transportation costs, but they would be within the district.
Based on the figures provided, closing a community school would be the more cost-effective option.
The decision on which community school might be closed rests with the school board members, and then the voters for that town, and that town only. Sanders believed that if the town voted against closing their school, they would have to pick up an additional percentage of the cost of keeping the school open.
In general, stakeholders expressed strong interest in keeping students within the district. A variety of suggestions were proposed throughout the meeting: seeking philanthropic funding, closing the high school building and moving it to one of the elementary school buildings, creating a district campus and consolidating all the schools to MTA, or building dormitories on the MTA campus and opening a ski school as an alternative to Carrabassett Valley Academy.
Jed Nickerson, a teacher in the district, proposed the ski school idea, saying that he’s seen the conversation revolve around saving money and cutting costs. “How can we cut more from bone?” He asked, stating that the district is already working with the bare bones.
If the district tried to absorb the $1 million without raising taxes or making a major change in the district, Sanders said they would lose athletics, all extracurricular activities, programs, and there would be teacher layoffs.
In closing the meeting, Sanders said that for the next meeting, he would prepare estimated savings and expense for three scenarios: closing each of the three community schools. The next meeting will be Dec. 13 at MTA at 6 p.m., and Sanders would also have information from his meeting with state reps on the issue.
The public is invited and encouraged to attend these meetings. Agendas for upcoming meetings as well as minutes from previous meetings are available on the MSAD 58 website under the Strategic Planning page should stakeholders wish to peruse them before the next meeting.
