FARMINGTON – The Mt. Blue Regional School District heard a report from the finance committee Tuesday evening, on how the district intends to meet a state budget curtailment.
The administration has been told that the curtailment will result in a loss of $331,072 in state subsidy in the district’s 2009-2010 budget. The state has ordered more than $38 million in subsidy reductions to Department of Education’s general aid budget following announcements of a $400 million shortfall in the state’s two-year budget.
Director Yvette Robinson, of Farmington, who sits on the finance committee, said that the district hopes to address the curtailment without staffing reductions.
“The good news,” she said, “instead of furlough days or layoffs, is that we’ll be able to meet the curtailment without those things.”
The finance committee and administration are purposing freezing supply accounts, except for emergency purchases, saving $50,000, and reducing the contingency fund by $60,000. Another $200,000 would be taken out of the general fund balance, money saved by the district from past budgets and typically used to help reduce the impact of budget increases on taxpayers. The recently-installed pellet stoves have saved $17,000, and another $4,000 would be saved within the central office secretarial line, through an unrelated resignation and hire.
The plan will not require layoffs or reductions in programs, Robinson said. However, she also noted that the reductions in the contingency and general funds would leave the district vulnerable if another curtailment should occur.
“It really does take all the resources we have,” she said.
Superintendent Michael Cormier said that the DOE and state had not released information about whether another curtailment will occur later this fiscal year. If it does, Cormier said, the district would be in tough shape.
“If there is a $200,000 cut,” Cormier said, “we will be unable to operate for the rest of the year.”
Layoffs alone wouldn’t be enough to meet hundreds of thousands of dollars of curtailments. Employees are required to have 90 days of notice prior to being fired, and with the fiscal year approaching the halfway point, firing an employee would not generate significant savings in the short term.
One possibility could be shut down days, which are currently not allowed under state law. Staff at Mt. Blue RSD had been receptive to different solutions to the district’s financial issues, Cormier said.
“I think there is a real understanding about how desperate things are in the state of Maine,” Cormier said.
