MSAD 58 school board approves $9.7 million budget

SALEM – The MSAD 58 school board unanimously approved $9.7 million budget Thursday evening, after more than four hours of debate.

The $9,697,728 budget represents a decrease of $460,000 from the 2009-2010 budget. After applying the reductions in state subsidy and a release of $380,000 from surplus funds, carried over from the current fiscal year, the budget will represent a net decrease of $5,000 in the district’s net local assessment. Due to cost shifts within the district, primarily a little less than $200,000 out of Eustis, the other four towns can expect increases in their local assessments.

The $9.7 million budget includes $10,500 in restored positions and capital improvements requested by the school board, including an elementary art teaching position, balanced against some more significant cuts, including the reduction of another high school teaching position.

The board spent some time debating the future of elementary school administration within the district, weighing the administration’s plan for two principals splitting their time between four schools against Director Alan Morse’s of Phillips, plan to utilize four “teaching principals.” Superintendent Quenten Clark developed preliminary financial numbers for the proposal, which showed a roughly $20,000 increase in costs, mostly in pay raises for affected personnel and tuition funding for state-mandated certifications.

Directors were split on the plans. While several agreed with Morse that an administrator in each school was preferable to two traveling principals and two head teachers, others questioned how four administrators would be affected by the possibility of facility realignment in the near future. Board directors have stated they are committed to study the district’s use of facilities, maintaining the possibility of closing a building and busing students somewhere else in the district.

“We’re thinking about reconfiguring schools in the next year,” Director Sara Woods of Eustis, said. “What’s going to happen then?”

Extra principals are considered administrators, not teachers, Clark noted. They would therefore have no seniority, even if they had continued to teach, and would be first in line when it came time to reduce the number of personnel.

“These are some of our best people,” Director Mary Jane Thorndike of Phillips, said. “I feel like we’re kind of setting them up for failure.”

Morse originally proposed adding $20,000 into the administration line, with the intent of setting the specific arrangement up some time before the end of the fiscal year. Directors, however, were uncomfortable asking taxpayers for funds that might not be expended. Board Chair Mike Pond of Strong, successfully amended Morse’s motion to set the level of additional administration funding to zero dollars. The board will likely discuss the exact arrangement at a later date.

The board also instituted students paying to take the Advanced Placement tests. Previously, MSAD 58 had picked up the fee associated with the AP tests, $78 per test with students on the free or reduced-price lunch program paying $58. Students taking the AP tests, which allow the earning of college credits through a good score, will now need to pay those fees themselves. That change saves the district roughly $4,000.

The board also discussed, but did not enact, pay-to-play for elementary sports. Tuesday evening, the board did institute a $35 fee for each student participating in a high school sport, with an eye toward replacing the junior varsity program cuts. Pond made the motion to extend the same policy to the elementary level, saying he was responding to residents in his community.

“Out of everything we’ve done [with this budget],” Pond told the board, “this is the real push button.”

The board cut 12 of 25 elementary level coaching positions Tuesday evening. The future of elementary athletics remains in doubt, recent ideas have ranged from unisex teams (and therefore fewer coaches) to a less-elaborate league system which would play a couple of round robins, to moving from competitive sports to a system with emphasis on intramural sports and “open gym” programs.

A pay-to-play system would use district funding for the first sports of the season, namely soccer. The soccer players’ fees would be used to cover the basketball program, which would generate fees for spring sports. Directors questioned what would happen if families couldn’t come up with funds for their children, as elementary students, unlike high schoolers, would be less likely to be able to raise $35 themselves.

“I would hope you would trust your communities,” Clark said.

No director supported Pond’s motion. Morse noted that there were at least two meetings prior to the budget meeting, and members of the community could always bring new suggestions forward.

The board also approved two expenditures out of the current, 2009-2010 budget. The board unanimously approved expending $40,000 to install a pellet boiler at the Phillips Elementary School, after the district earned a $326,000 federal grant for that purpose. Even if the facility were to close at some point, the company will contractually purchase the equipment back from the district for $40,000.

The second expenditure was $28,000 to engineering firm Bunker & Savage Architects, who will conduct a study of Mt. Abram High School. The study will provide important information for the board as they move forward with potential facility realignment.

The public hearing for the MSAD 58 budget draft has been set for May 25 at 6 p.m., at Mt. Abram High School. Articles at the meeting are closed; residents may decrease the board-approved budget articles or vote the budget up or down, they cannot increase expenditures.

The referendum vote, which asks residents if they approved of the action taken at the meeting, will be held on June 8.