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SALEM – After a big crowd of concerned residents discussed the possibilities of closing one or more schools in MSAD 58 due to declining enrollment, Superintendent Quenten Clark unveiled a budget draft that seeks to cut more than a half million from a $10 million budget total.
Among the budget casualties proposed for elimination is the art department teacher position at Mt. Abram High School and cutting the coaching staff in half with the idea that the district’s kindergarten through eighth-grade sports teams would become unisex, where boys and girls compete together. Also at the high school, another full time equivalent teacher position would be cut and one retiring teacher wouldn’t be replaced.
Also proposed is that all junior varsity coaches at Mt. Abram would be eliminated leaving only varsity teams left to compete. A part time athletic trainer, the vocational student tuition for Advanced Placement courses and a truck driving course would be cut. A full time technology integration position would also be eliminated and various school shifts for administrators would be made to cover but not replace Stratton Elementary School’s principal and the district’s assistant superintendent position, when Lorrie D. Arruda retires.
Other departments, such as maintenance and transportation, general supplies and computer software have significant cuts proposed.
All this budget slashing is due to chronic, lower enrollments across the school district that bring in less in state revenues. And the future doesn’t look much brighter, Clark said. With a smaller number of kindergartners signed up, enrollment projections will continue to look bleak for years to come.
“We’re going to lose a tremendous amount of state subsidy,” Clark predicted for the coming years. Besides sliding state subsidies to help local schools make ends meet, some towns will be hit with the double whammy of higher property valuation rates for a greater burden of carrying the schools’ funding. The town of Strong is expected to take the biggest hit in the school district, Clark said.
Besides the budget cutting measures proposed, the MSAD board agreed to send a letter to invite a meeting with the MSAD 74 board to discuss the possibility of merging the districts. Both districts are being penalized for not consolidating. MSAD 58’s fine is $138,000 this year and while drastic measures are being proposed to cut the budget, the money being paid for a penalty should instead be spent on preserving students services, Clark said.
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“If we do business with SAD 74, we’ll save a ton of money,” he said, then added that “down the road we’ll still have a problem with declining enrollment.” The other option besides teaming up with MSAD 74 is to have an eighth town sign on in order to avoid the penalty fine. Possible partners batted around include Coplin and Highland plantations, along with the town of Carrabassett Valley.
Talk of the budget draft was preceded by talk of closing one or more schools to save money. Mt. Abram’s library was packed with residents, teachers and staff who came to hear the proposals.
Self-described “Concerned Father,” Joe Haynes of Strong, got a round of applause after his four-page analysis of the school closure issue was read aloud by Clark. In it, Haynes’ idea is to use the Strong Elementary School as the new high school, create a MSAD 58 regional K-8 school at the high school and close the Phillips, Kingfield and Stratton schools. He added that Stratton’s youngest students could attend a small community school there.
Although many who spoke said they had real concerns with Haynes’ plan, such as the communities that would lose their local schools, mixing different ages under one roof, student travel time to school, and others, he was congratulated on having taking the time to offer a solution.
As many as 15 different combinations of school facility reconfigurations have been proposed so far. Many spoke about the idea of tuitioning high school students to Mt. Blue High School. Last year, Mt. Abram had 40 fewer high school students attending and next year, another 20 fewer are expected. Soon, Clark said, Mt. Abram “will be looking at a graduation of 45 students.” In addition, the high school building at 40 years of age, has some issues that need to be met soon, if it’s to stay open.
“We’re just trying to work through this. We have to balance the money piece with the education piece,” he said. The board will look at the cost savings of each plan and begin to narrow the viable proposals in the coming weeks. The district’s budget review will continue through April.
Now maybe liberals will realize their mistake in voting for this joke of a governor we’ve had for 8 years. You made your bed…. The $138K fine would help like hell to fill the budget gap.
Also SAD 58, where are your lobbiests? SAD 9 is getting two new schools to the tune of $82 million tax dollars. They certainly don’t need it as bad as SAD 58!!
The obvious thing to do is bulldose the white elephant called Mt Abram and build two efficient buildings on the property. One for lower grades and one for upper. This would consolidate transportation. Build basic structures that are easily expandable in case the future gets brighter. Kingfield’s property might work well with expansion as well.
We don’t need fancy architecture; the building doesn’t teach a thing. Well I guess it does, Mt Abram must have made at least a few people realize how stupid they were to let it be built!
Our parents and grandparents were(and are) so much smarter than us, and most of them learned in a shack.
Maybe another cost savings would be getting rid of dead weight teachers. Let them live like loggers have to, get paid only on what they produce!
Oh yeah, making grade school sports unisex? That’s gonna save us all isn’t it? Wasting time on ideas like that is exactly why we are spiraling downward….
Such a hard decision to make. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter what is decided, there is going to be someone who will be unhappy. We need a plan that will benefit the most children.
Captain Planet, that is an interesting comment about loggers v. teachers. They produce such different things though, that’s the problem. One you can physically count, the other is intangible. It is not impossible to make teachers accountable to student learning. But that’s not the issue here. The issue is that fewer kids are growing up in the area so there is less per-student money coming in from the state. Whether the SAD 58 teachers are stupendous or stupid doesn’t matter even one iota as to school funding. Don’t scapegoat the teachers over this. Maybe some will have to be cut, but you can only go so far before you dull the education the kids of your community are going to get.
The fine of 138000 dollars is significant and should have already been looked at closely. That design was made to save the state money–not a liberal idea Now do you know why it wasn’t? (I warn you that I am speculating here) Because when consolidation was going to happen, suddenly the superintendents couldn’t agree and as a result the whole process didn’t go so well. I guess the superintendent of SAD 9, 58, 74 or 1234 couldn’t quite agree on whose job was going to get cut.
I like your idea on keeping things simple. I think you are supporting the idea of keeping our community schools even it means traveling a little further. And I like the idea that you want them to keep things simple, spend less on the stuff that doesn’t matter. Liberals and conservatives should be able to come together on this to keep the community schools alive. That act in its essence though may come up on opposition to the true conservatives who would have us homeschooled or in private schools. Whose kids do you think will get to go to the private schools?
Capt Planet,
Many of our teachers either work in the woods during the summer or are married to loggers in SAD 58. Also I would like to point out Mt. Abram is NOT the white elephant that everyone is pointing out to be. It is our best and largest facility. Many non profits use its facilities for their programs. Its has a new wood pellet boiler, new baseball field, new softball field, new tennis courts, and a new lights on the soccer field. Its gym floor also is new within the last 5 years. The building is only 40 years old. I cant count how many people who come to MTA for the first time are simply amazed by the building. The community has worked extremely hard through donations and donating work and equipment to make Mt. Abram a first class facility, which it is. We are in a grave situation in SAD 58. The Baldacci administration doesnt not care about rural Maine, thats the perception and perception is reality. A few years ago we voted in favor of the state to fund 55% of education, they are not even close to this. Their are many proposals out there. Joe Haines proposal is the best proposal out there to educate our kids K-12 in my opinion. Tuitioning our high school student to another high school is out of the question for a numerous reasons however one very important one, we will not have school board representation for high school students if we do this. The towns in SAD 58 need to work together to come to a compromise that is best for our kids. For too long weve been in disagreement. Its time we come together and work this out. Joe Haines proposal is the best one to educate our kids K-12. This isnt an easy decision and weve been dealt a very bad hand. We all know who to blame, but that isnt going to make it any better. Lets sit down and formulate a plan.
I can count on one hand the number of my classmates who have stayed in the area and been determined to make a living in order to raise their children here. The safety and small town feel to our towns is worth the sacrifice of good pay or expensive lifestyles. Enrollment is declining and I believe it is in part to the availability of jobs in our area. I am a 30 yr old who travels each day to work; I am sure like many others in our area. This is a very complicated issue, however, I hope that some sort of industry can come to our area in order to allow people to stay here to raise their children while being able to make a decent living. Perhaps talk to this year’s senior class and ask them if they plan to stay to raise their children here?? I cant blame them if they have to move away to find a job.
If there is seriousness in closing three of the four schools, maybe you should think about closing all elementary schools and expanding the High School to accomodate all students. It was designed in 1968 such that it could be added to. I doubt that design has been changed much. If you want to look at economy’s of scale, heating one building, insuring one building, and maintaining one building makes much more sense than trying to care for two of them. That way everyone sacrifices in the loss of a School. To leave one kindergarten class in Stratton would be completely unfair.They pay the lion’s share, travel the farthest and have the least to say. I can’t wait for the next Irregular response from Sandra Scrbiner . It’s sad to say but as long as the State of Maine continues to support anyone that wants a free ride in life. there’s never be any additional money for anything of merit such as Schools.. Just spend a bit of time looking over the way this State has become the financial problem solver for all ., and you shouldn’t have to ask why there are no funds to do anything with. You can’t only blame the current Governor. Remember he was well trained in Washington. If you can find a way to turn off the faucet for welfare. Pare down every State budget by 20%. Elimimate TIF’S, Jack up the State Sales tax 2%, I could go on all night, and start working together for basic fundemental education accross the State. You can still have a quality place to raise a family in a safe enviorment. I wish Ed Dexter was still with us. He was a conservative Republican and not afraid to stand up for Small Town Maine.