FARMINGTON – School board directors approved the next budget cycle timeline and a lease purchase for three buses at their meeting Tuesday night. Also discussed was the issue of public participation during the budget process.
Mt. Blue Regional School District directors unanimously approved a budget review schedule that will begin a month earlier than in previous years. The earlier start in the process brings an earlier date for a districtwide referendum vote to take place. In the event a second referendum vote is needed to pass a budget, as in the last two years, the delay would not impact the next fiscal budget year’s start on July 1.
Approved was a Jan. 24, 2017 start of the budget review. Budget meetings, some mixed with regular school board business, are set for once a week with a 6 p.m. start time in The Forum on the Mt. Blue Campus. The board is scheduled to set the budget at the April 11 meeting and the annual budget meeting on May 2. The budget’s referendum vote is scheduled for May 16.
The change moves from budget meetings held twice a week in a more condensed time period to a longer, one a week schedule will help avoid “burn out,” said board Chair Jennifer Zweig-Hebert of Starks. It will also allow the administration team time to respond to questions or the requests for more information the board do raise at meetings.
The general procedure agreed on was for the administration team to initiate the process by bringing a proposed budget to the board with the whole board reviewing line by line item any increases of $500 or more. In the past it was up to a budget committee to intensively review a proposed budget then to bring its recommendations to the full board. But, during the last few budget cycles, the full board ended up reviewing line by line anyway.
Just how the public can participate in the budget process is something that the board’s policy committee will be tackling in the coming weeks. While a public comment period allows residents to interject their opinions as directors review the proposed budget, there is concern the meetings leave less time for the board’s discussion.
“The board meetings are not public forums,” Zweig-Hebert noted.
The public comment policy for the budget process allows for people to sign up to speak, to give administrators an idea of what they wish to address in order to avoid possible confidential personnel matters. Also, if a like-minded group of people attend a meeting, it is recommended to have one spokesperson instead of several people arguing the same point, Superintendent Thomas Ward said. Other ideas would set a time limit for each speaker and the number of comments per meeting. Once the board begins discussing the agenda items, comments from the public would end to allow for the board to do its work.
The policy committee will review the current policy and then if it is recommended to amend it the full board will hold two readings on the proposed policy before a vote is taken. The budget review process will already be underway should any changes to the policy be made by the board.
In other action, the board approved the lease purchase of three new school buses for $289,614. The five-year lease purchase financing will be through Gorham Savings Leasing Group, which offered the lowest interest rate at 2.85 percent. A second bank, Androscoggin Bank offered a higher 2.97 percent rate which would had added about $500 a year more to the price. A third bank didn’t respond to the request for bid.
The state’s reimbursement to the district will come in at 70 percent of the total purchase price, said Jonathan Chalmers, the district’s transportation director. Two of the buses are for 84 passengers and the third can carry 77 passengers. The district’s yearly payment totals $61,352.15. Budgeted was $63,000 per year for the five-year agreement.
Well, it looks like Tom Ward and the Chairman of the Board are going to do their best to shut down any controversy regarding their budget negotiations. If you are saying the Board Meetings are NOT A PUBLIC FORUM, then when IS there a chance for the PUBLIC to ask questions, and make proposals for reductions?
Are you planning on freezing out the tax payers? If that’s the case, you may fine that might not bode well for you in the end.
Public comment should be allowed in the beginning and then shut off so that the school board can do their work.
Doesn’t have to be a difficult process. Give them an amount, say last year’s like most of us have, let them thrash it around in-house and come back to the board, which could disagree with some things, but mostly agree and pass it. If they come to us with last year’s number, I guarantee there won’t be more than one vote. Done. No burn-out.
How about a “suggestion box”? It could be installed outside near the door. People could voice their opinions in writing so it wouldn’t slow down meetings
If they come with last year’s budget number, it will HAVE to be the negotiated number, not the original number. But even then, the tax payers are going to see an increase. There will not likely be any funds coming from the State to help defray the cost to the towns/tax payers like there was last year. That was a fluke. A helpful fluke, but fluke nevertheless.
What is most disturbing is that while the District continues to rave about the quality of education the kids are getting, it’s not there. So we’re throwing lots of dollars at a system that is spitting out kids who are under-educated. When I see the average graduate, I’m appalled at what they haven’t learned. If you take away all the technology, they’re numb as a stump. They can’t add in their head or write a complete sentence with correct spelling. I don’t think that’s worth $32 Million.
Add a million or so. Vote it down . Shave off around 200k and rally all “the troops” to push it through. Repeat next year. Now that was pretty simple.
Regarding this comment from above ” if a like-minded group of people attend a meeting, it is recommended to have one spokesperson instead of several people arguing the same point….”
If such is the case, this needs to be applied to all groups equally such as …..one teacher speaks on behalf of all the teachers, one principal speaks on behalf of all the principals, etc.
I believe the school district is a non-profit 501(c3) organization. If that is not true, please correct me.
If it is a 501 (c3) organization, that means that its board meetings are open to the public if the board is not in executive session.
If some of the public come to the meetings, then you can decide how to handle their input. I don’t think closing off input at the start of the process is a good idea.
Eileen Liddy
Wilton
And so it begins,Reference JCD’s comment,don’t let it happen again.We as taxpayers need to see cuts.I refuse to believe it cost 32 million to run our district.Our tax base can’t support it.
Interesting that someone would complain the education isn’t good enough while simultaneously arguing against funding the school budget properly. Seems a bit hypocritical.
Dave, the point is that every year the school district’s budget goes up, up , up while student performance and achievement go down, down, down. From every community in RSU 9 come complaints of students not being able to write or even print legibly, spelling mastery is horrendous, ( one Mt. Blue student spelled “sista” on a job application this past summer) , math skills? well ask at random a few students what percentages are, literature? geography? history? talk, ask , probe and you’ll find out that what’s happening, or rather what isn’t happening! It is scary! Worse, it is SAD!
Is there documentation with regard to student performance going down?
I have four children who graduated from Mount Blue in the past ten years and they all performed extremely well on the SATs, received merit scholarships to college, two (so far) have successfully graduated from college in four years (no remedial classes necessary), and are gainfully employed in their fields in Maine. The third is a senior, Phi Beta Kappa, Honors College, and already has a job offer for when she graduates from UMO in May. Number four is a freshman and doing just fine. Most of their friends have similar stories.
It’s disturbing to me to see people continually lump all student together based on an impression of the few. Certainly, there are students who, for example, struggle when they get to college; it is a big adjustment for all students, not just those from this district. I’m sure there are some that can’t spell, etc. But to characterize all or most Mount Blue students as falling into this category seems inaccurate to me.
So, is there documentation of this or is it just talk based on anecdotal evidence? I’d like to see some real source material on this claim.
Thank you Barbara! I see so many children who are wonderful students. But because of a few students who struggle with a learning disability, or family problems, (which are growing every year) we blame the school system and not the fact that there are not enough resources out there to help so it is left to the school system to try to fix. That is why it costs so much. So before you judge the school system come see what they are dealing with every day in their classrooms. We have a problem and it is not the school system.