FARMINGTON – Regional School Unit 9 school board directors listened to residents about the budget process, the school district and the community itself, with approximately 100 people attending Thursday’s school board meeting.
The board concluded the meeting by moving unanimously to set the schedule for the next budget process, beginning with board meetings on Sept. 19 and possibly Sept. 21 if necessary. After the school board sets a proposed budget, voters will take up the issue at a district-wide budget meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 11, at 6:30 p.m. Whatever budget is approved out of that meeting will proceed to a validation vote on Tuesday, Oct. 24 in all 10 towns.
The times and dates include a number of tweaks and compromises, compared to the previous three processes. The district received requests to move the meeting to Wednesday, as a number of sports and extra-curricular events typically take place on Tuesdays. After some discussion, board members approved a start-time of 6:30 p.m. – a slightly earlier start after last week’s four-plus hour-long meeting, but late enough to accommodate the end of most residents’ work day.
The schedule also provides more time for the submission of absentee ballots by increasing the time period between the budget meeting and validation vote to 13 days.
The meeting began with the board certifying the results of the validation referendum, with 1,608 votes in favor and 2,893 votes opposed to the $32.6 million budget proposed at the Sept. 5 meeting. The 4,501 votes cast Tuesday represent the largest turnout for a school budget vote over the past few years.
That high level of interest was reflected in the roughly 100 or so people that attended the budget meeting. Approximately a dozen people addressed the school board; directors, who generally only responded if asked a direct question, listened and in some cases took notes.
A number of speakers indicated their support for the school board and the district employees, offering advice to make the process easier to understand and improve communication. Jennifer Dorman of Farmington, a Skowhegan educator and the 2015 Teacher of the Year, said that the uncertainties of the budget process had impacted her child’s education, as a science teacher position had remained open since the beginning of the school year. That position was currently being filled with a substitute, Dorman said.
“Whenever we cut the budget we impact students and teachers and programs,” Dorman said.
Bob Millay of Chesterville called upon those in favor of the board’s previously-proposed budgets and those in favor of additional cuts to compromise. He suggested restoring the funds cut from the Special Education program, some $545,000 at the Sept. 5 meeting, and look at other cost centers for reductions, potentially renegotiating contracts with teachers.
“I’m not against education,” Millay, a former educator, said. “This is all for the kids. I hope things improve for the kids.”
Several directors said they appreciated the turnout at the meeting. It was a chance to see that “we all live in the same place,” Director Doug Dunlap of Farmington said. “Our destinies are connected.”
Superintendent Tom Ward noted that he had graduated Mt. Blue in 1972, returning to the district to coach and teach and later to serve as superintendent.
“I love this district,” Ward said. “It tears me apart what we’ve been going on.” He said that he was amazed by the high turnout on the last validation vote.
Up-to-date enrollment figures from RSU 9 indicate that the student population has increased by 75 students since April 2017, an increase of 3.6 percent to a total of 2,373 district-wide. Of those 75 students, 12 will require Special Education services, or 16 percent. The state average for student requiring services, school officials noted, is 17.5 percent.
Among the students requiring special services are two students that will require an out-of-district placement estimated to cost $50,000 per student, plus transportation costs. Ward said that while the decision would be up to the school board, those funds would likely need to be included in the next iteration of the budget. Cuts would be proposed to offset that increase.
The school board will begin meeting on the budget on Tuesday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m., following an executive session that will begin at 5:30 p.m.
“Whatever budget is approved out of that meeting will proceed to a validation vote on Tuesday, Oct. 24 in all 10 towns.”
Great nearly another month and a half of this lunacy. Like Ms. Dorman stated I cannot imagine that the uncertainty is affecting the kids in the classroom at this point. Why wait so long- presumably the numbers are known at this point.
Just throw your money to the wind . School is just a big business now . Driving most people out of there land and homes .
I’m confused at why 2 special needs children are costing the district 50,000 each for private school . Why’s that ? Is it because our district can’t provide the services they need ?
James, please get involved with changing the way education is funded. Find out how other towns, states, countries fund their educational systems, without driving people out of their land and homes. Our schools are NOT big business.
I believe that the science teacher position was open due to the teacher taking on another position in the district recently. I would think that the position was already in the budget and that this budget process is not hindering a science teacher being hired. Does anyone know the answer to that?
@Confused
You’re probably right. There are some things that aren’t reasonable for our school to set up for just 2 students. They might be extremely violent (towards themselves or teachers) and need specialty teachers/facilities. Perhaps they have medical needs that would cost more than $50,000 each for the school to accommodate. Mt. Blue takes students (for pay) from other districts for the same reason. It’s cheaper for those smaller districts to pay tuition than to set up an entire program of their own for a few kids.
12 special needs kids coming into district- probably not a good idea to cut the special education budget again.Also by skimping on funding special education resources in the system it increases the likelihood of needing to place a kid out of district which is obviously very expensive.
And before people start demonizing these kids- special education designation is not merely a result of kids being poorly behaved because the parents are not doing a good job. The designation requires a diagnosis that is no fault of the child nor parent. yes some of the kids in special education because of their conditions will behave badly. The staff do their best but sometimes the condition is too severe and the kid needs a specialized program that is expensive.
That figure for 2 children is outrageous! Doesn’t Maine Care help with that?
Wouldn t it be cheaper to just have a special school for the special needs? My brother is a special needs and he went to special schools, he learned a lot!
In a special school, they get the proper attention that they need and they don’t have to worry about other kids picking on them or making fun of them. Just sayin…
Sorry James, last year was a zero adder across the district for assessments due to schools, and this year is likely to be a 2% or so cut…not enough to chase me out.
Oh, and the homestead exemption doubled over the last two years….
Now about those County taxes going up….
There is a hiring freeze at the moment
@ Farmington Resident- A hiring freeze was put in place after the last meeting because had that budget passed there was no way all the open positions could be filled. In fact some already filled would have had to be cut.
Throw away comments like “School is a big business” “Teachers don’t work much” “Administrators make too much money.” Are rhetorical comments, like memes, they are easy to say but express opinion only. They replace honest consideration of fact, and reasonable dialog of those facts.
my data faulty ? Retrieved from the 2015-2016 NCLB REPORT CARD and the MT BLUE RSU9 2017-2018 BUDGET DETAIL documents. Total staff,(not just teaches) wages are about $19,764,000. Total benefits are $5,205,000. (26% avg The instructional avg. is over 30%) The transportation section is49%!!!.The reportcard data indicates that over 50% of students did not meet standards.56% failed math, 25% failed english, and 33% failed science. That’s not very good for about a $26 million investment
Alison Haines,
The school budget isn’t a straight-to-local-tax-payer bill. It’s an itemized list of how school funds will be used. The federal government, state government, and local municipalities then pay their own separate portions. Special needs education is basically paid for by the federal and state government (including Maine Care) before we even see our portion of it.
It wouldn’t be cheaper to build our own “special school” for just 2 students. Only extreme cases need super-specialized facilities (which are super-expensive). Anyways, putting all special needs kids into separate schools in every town was stopped for a very good reason. In the past, many “special” schools became cruel and abusive babysitting facilities with zero learning happening. Also, most special needs kids don’t require that level of support. Many fit in well with a normal classroom – just needing a little extra one-on-one help or extra time with certain tasks. I can’t imagine putting dyslexic children into a separate facility because they needed some support for reading. That would be a horrible message to send a child (“you can’t be with the ‘normal’ kids”). It’s not a bad thing for kids to be in the same building as the kids who don’t attend regular classes (there’s not really that many). Compassion and empathy are invaluable for our kids – so is learning not to be terrified of “different” people.
@ Not a Mt Blue Parent
When I graduated in 2001 from MBHS, there were a number of students in the special ed buildings that were there solely because they discovered that they could act out etc and be moved into “Easy class”. For example I had a friend that discovered this and bragged about getting A’s for watching movie’s and going to UMF to swim instead of running 2 miles in gym like the rest of us after getting into special ed.
I fully understand that there are special needs students that need these class’s, but unless there has been a drastic change since I graduated, there are also many students that go there because its a easier day to day life for them and the regular teachers didn’t have to deal with their shenanigans if they are sent off to special ed.
It was rather frustrating to see this and know that the end result was the same diploma the rest of us earned.
Perhaps this has changed during the intervening years, but it was very common not that long ago.
@E.w.
Please compare those numbers to the rest of the schools in our state. We’re actually doing quite well comparatively and spending less money than most schools per student. If you want those test percentages to go up – prepare to pay up.
@Jon Snow,
It is crummy when people try to game the system. It hurts everyone – including those kids in the long run. Let’s not hurt the kids who really do need the help because of those scam artists. Things are changing. Beginning with the class of 2020, kids have to demonstrate proficiency (testing, etc…) in each subject matter to get a high school diploma.
Jon Snow, spot on! Just most in this PC world wont admit it.