School districts’ voting results: RSU 9 not passing, MSAD 58, RSU 78 approved

49 Comments

1. Well, it’s a squeaker, for sure. I wonder how New Vineyard will impact the vote. I sure hope the counting was accurate. The are Board Members who will no doubt request a recount.

2. Time to move forward, start making the tough decisions. I teach my kids that two letter word and it hurts but the reward is far greater.

3. First of all, thank you to all the voters that took the time to vote. I hope the school board gets the message.

   One would have to ask, what could be the justification for a recount? Is that to suggest the certified ballot counters can’t count?

   This voter would be more than happy to embrace a flat, no increase budget.

4. I will spend my summer engaged in rewriting a proposed budget for RSU 9. I am a community member, home owner, full time worker (not of the school district) and tax payer entrusted to this responsibility by the voters of Wilton.
   If you voted no last night, please, let me or another schoolboard member know where you would like us to reduce further. My telephone number and email address along with all the other school-board members is on the RSU 9 website. Please come to one or all of our many 3 hour long meetings. We want to know your suggestions. We have already been forced to cut teaching positions and increase class sizes. Many towns saw a financial reduction in their portion.
   I will keep working but ask that you follow through with your no vote and make realistic suggestions of what else you want cut. Help me to understand what you want. I welcome a democracy. The school-board is made out of community individuals that you elected. Give us the tools to work for you!

5. We have all elected School Board Director’s in to represent our towns….SO why do our representatives spend hours and hours preparing a budget to have it voted down.

   If you have problems with the budget you need to talk to you School Board Director during the process, NOT create more work for everyone at the end of June.

   Our students in this district are our future. If you want to continuing living in our beautiful area and enjoying all the amenities, you need to create a great school that brings other businesses and individuals to our town, which is happening now.

   TRUST YOUR SCHOOL BOARD TO DO THEIR JOB…..they deserved a YES vote yesterday.

6. I had classes of 32, 29, 26, and 24 in high school classes this year. If there are further staff cuts, those numbers will only grow.
   I chose to come to RSU 9 because of the quality of education it was dedicated to. I took a significant pay cut from my previous district. If I was only concerned with my own earnings, I would have stayed put. I want the best quality education for the kids in my classrooms and in my home. Classes of 30+ are not best practice.
   If you are basing your “no” vote on the way things were when you were in school, you are severely out of touch with the modern world.
   Cherieann Harrison put it very well in a previous post. “No” voters should help solve the issue by showing up to budget meetings. See you there.

7. Cherieann,

   With all due respect to you and the school board members, it is not the publics job to make the decisions of how and where to make the cuts.
   You might start by asking our hospital budget board, how they approached making the cuts they most recently made and who is currently suffering as a result of the cuts they made?
   I realize your have a tough job, but cuts have to be made. After significant cuts are made, provide the public, detailed feedback through out the year, as to how the impact of those cuts is being felt.

8. I think everyone agrees that we need to invest in the future of our kids and I think everyone truly would love to. Wasn’t the new high school a big investment? The property taxes just have such a strangle hold on so many of us. They’ve gotten so bad the last couple years. Mine have gone up over 60% in Chesterville. In Chesterville! The reality is that wages in this area can’t support the constant increases in property taxes. I can’t afford my tax bill at this point and live so far from where I work, I wish there was an easy answer.

9. School Board Director Cherieann Harrison – Town of Wilton: Thank you for the outreach. Certainly makes since for voters, taxpayers, parents to talk with their school board members. There was very little citizen input while the budget was being build in February and March, even though there were many public meetings, attended by the board, and by very few citizens.

   Talking with board members should be encouraged,

   Thank you again Cherieann for reaching out, and looking for feedback. The vote was very close, and both sides of the vote should look to what common beliefs they have, and work for solutions.

10. To A dulles..
    With tiny due respect;
    Not very helpful are you.
    Sit back and Monday morning quarterback .
    Useless
    .

11. The school budget is full of complicated mathematical formulas, state and federal requirements and hundreds of individual line items. Countless hours have been spent by our elected board members, week after week, compiling information to create a budget for the citizens of our district to approve. Our board members are asking for the public’s input on expense reductions. They are not asking you to make the decisions, but to offer suggestions to help them better represent the voice of their communities. They are no different from any other legislative body. When you have state or federal issues, you call or write your senators and representatives to let them know what you think or to offer suggestions. If you have no real suggestions, than you have no right to complain. They are asking for direction only to please you; as it is there job to represent you.

    Remember: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
    Many of us have had workplace supervisors that have said “Do not come to me with a complaint, unless you have an idea to make it better”

    If you want change, than you better offer up a solution!

12. To Cherieann…..A. Dulles is right. How do you expect people not with the school to make suggestions for cuts? This issue came up at the budget meeting, too. The Board and Supt. always ask where should we make cuts? Be realistic. All the community can do is vote the budget down when it gets too high and is creating hardship for too many. That is the process. It is up to Dept. Heads, principals, and superintendents to make the cuts. However, if you want a suggestion, cut the salary increases for administrators. These huge increases add up to well over $50,000. This was Supt. Ward’s effort to upgrade those salary ranges. With all the hardship in the community, this was not the time for these increases. I know the argument is going to be that the raises are under a finalized contract and therefore can’t be removed from the budget. Well, that was shortsightedness on the district’s part and this practice needs to change. This contract, along with the teachers’ contract and the support staff contract should only be final with approval of the budget. Finalizing these before referendum approval is underhanded or at least looks underhanded. If removing these raises from the budget is a breach of contract then that is the fault of the district and they need to do something to correct the situation. Suggestion: Have a meeting with those administrators, principals, and dept. heads and explain the situation and hope they will agree to changing the contract.

13. The budget we voted on last night was not a perfect budget. Many hard decisions were made that have a direct impact on the students in this district. My son will be in fifth grade next year. An ed tech was going to lose her job with the proposed budget so an imperfect solution was arranged that means that he will have one teacher in the morning and an ed tech in the afternoon. While I have the utmost respect for the teachers and ed techs who provide my son his education, I am concerned that he will not be prepared for the rigors of middle and high school as a result of these cuts. Our schools are being bled dry. I propose that if you do not like the fact that your taxes are being raised to pay for our schools you take your concern to the Maine State Government where unfunded mandates, income tax cuts on the top earners in our state are forcing many of these costs from the state to local property tax payers. The opposing vote was well organized. If only they would put such energy into insuring our children got the education they have a right to and that the state contributed it’s portion adequately, we would not have to include another divisive school budget vote to our already fractured community.

14. Administration Salaries is a good place to start!!! Was that easy enough for ya?

15. I was on the RSU9/ Sad9 Board for eight years. I participated in eight budget efforts. I found trying to help craft the budget to be a very difficult task because we on the board had little understanding of the minutia of the needs of the school district. The knowledgeable people who bring us the choices are from the administration. To a significant extent we went along with suggestions and guidance from the administration because we simply didn’t know a lot about these issues. I regarded Superintendent Cormier’s guidance on these matters to be fiscally conservative. The tenure of Superintendent Ward to be more liberal , which can be seen in the increases in the budget over the last three years. The Board recognized budgeting difficulty, seven or eight years ago, to some extent, by forming a budget committee. That helped a bit because a small number of Board members could devote extra effort to sort out the needs, but even there the information came from the administration.
    The thought on the minds of the public in regard to expenses was that taxes go up with additional school spending. I do not embrace the idea that more money will automatically improve the education in any school system. My preference is that the budget, every couple of years, be held the same as the previous year and let the administration deal with that restriction. I realize that there are union contracts that compel more spending. In the past, occasionally the unions would agree to a freeze. That was back in the Cormier days. We, in RSU9 are in an area with a tepid economy. Taxes can hurt. The largest tax bite comes from the school budget, at least in New Sharon. I really wouldn’t’ mind if there was a cap, say the rate of inflation, on school spending increases.
    I thank former member of the Board, Bob Neal, for getting information out to us so we could make a decision to vote NO to the budget. I have sympathy for the present Board members. I expect that the board will chop of a token amount of, say, a hundred thousand or so, and put it up for another vote. And it will pass.

16. I don’t know nothin about all that fancy mumbo jumbo budget talk. All I know is that if my taxes go up anymore I’ll have to cut back to 2 packs of smokes and 1 bottle of Allen’s a day and that is just plain unacceptable.

    Don’t we elect you smaht folks to figure out how to make that budget thingy work while not costing us anything? Just make the cuts, any cuts! I don’t have the gumption to go to any of those meetings or anything like that, it only took me 5 minutes to go and vote no so there. Just get it done. Back in my day, there was 1 room in the school and every kid K-12 was in there and you could quit anytime you wanted. Life was grand!

    Who really cares about giving our kids a proper education anyway? If we keep them stupid, they won’t be smart enough to move out of this area and they will have to stay here. So there, 2 problems solved, we don’t have to pay for education and we don’t have to keep losing our work force!

17. To Cherrianne…You asked for our input. Here it is. I hope Daily Bulldog will publish my comments as it seems they are “selective” in what they publish. If the school board wants to hear from the taxpayer then publish ALL comments. Not just a “select few”.

    If you have to ask the voters what to cut, then it appears to me that you aren’t listening to the them/us. That is a big problem. The other problem is what you are cutting! You cut teacher positions and staff personnel that have a direct impact on our children. Yet, you give those that remain raises! And addition, when someone new comes on board you give them thousands of dollars more then the person they are replacing. This doesn’t make sense! This would not happen in the private sector. We have heard this is done to get “quality” people. Really? People who go from a teaching position to an Administration position are doing it as a stepping stone in their career in hopes to eventually get raises and improve their employment opportunities in the future. Let them prove themselves in that position before you automatically increase their salary. That alone, would cut the budget by thousands. Many families in our district are struggling…Mills are closing…people are losing their jobs. They can barely make ends meet. They can’t afford more taxes! I’m not saying teachers don’t work hard or have a difficult job, but so do many other people in our community! Many are earning way less then our teachers and Administrators. They have less benefits…some have no benefits! And many of these people too…are educated people with degrees. The taxpayers are expected to pay for teachers “Master’s Degree’s”…if this is required for advancement in their field, why should they expect the taxpayer to pick up the tab? Many people in professional jobs need advanced certifications to advance in their respective careers and they pay for it out of their own pocket. The teachers should not rely on the taxpayers! Things like this has got to stop. We can’t afford it anymore! If you combine what they make, along with their benefits, and number of days they work, they are doing pretty well for themselvesI I know they feel they are underpaid, but a lot of people feel they are underpaid. Bottom line…You should NOT be cutting ANY positions that directly have an impact on our children’s learning. The Schools are there for ONE reason and that is to educate our CHILDREN. So WHY do you cut teacher/staff positions? WHY are you cutting programs for the children???? What you should be cutting is Administrative positions! Administrative costs! Administrative salaries! No salary increases during these tough times…for anyone! Decrease some of the benefits! Do not give higher salaries to those that replace retirees! This could add up to a lot of cost savings! Since Dr. Ward came on board it seems the spending is way out of whack! Pull back the reins on this spending!

18. Time to outsource the custodians and bus drivers and catch up with the times.

19. Typical Townie:
    Through your satire you make an excellent observation! When times are tight, even the uneducated fools of this area recognize that they have to make concessions in their lifestyles. Less smokes and coffee brandy; it would seem that there is a lesson here. If only I could figure it out.

20. @Typical Townie, you make some very good points and I would say after yesterdays vote the majority agrees with you.

    @Cherieann, How about cutting football and some other sports programs? We are talking about education here right, not big fantasies of being the next Peyton Manning. I do believe sports are important to teach teamwork/building, hard work and physical fitness etc.. but do we need to offer every sport for this tiny town? Try offering only the same sports SAD 58 (15 miles up the road) does and see what the savings might be. The kids up there seem to get by just fine and I believe both districts have produced about the same amount of NFL all-stars (somewhere around zero I think)

21. I’d suggest eliminating breakfasts at the school. I realize kids focus better with a full belly but parents should send their kids with breakfast already and not rely on the taxpayers to feed the hungry.

22. I feel a lot of sympathy for those on the school board who are having to go back to the drawing board and try to squeeze money from a stone. The NO contingent on here seems to be quite angry and wants there to be cuts, yet they can make no suggestions for what to cut other than administration. That’s not the help that Ms. Harrison was looking for when she reached out to you. But it is a reaction that I would expect from people who have no kids in the school system–they don’t know what to cut because they don’t know what is going on in the schools.

    Well, I do have kids in the school system, and I also have a partner who works at the hospital, which has seen a lots of cuts in the past year. So I can make suggestions for cuts based on my experience. Now before people jump down my throat, it is to be hoped that these cuts will be temporary and get us through this budget process – not permanent aspects of the budget. No one is saying that these cuts should be forever, and no matter what lines get adjusted by the school board in the end, we will be feeling the pinch. So I would rather have a say in what gets cut than just depend on them not to cut programs that would more adversely affect my children. My family is already feeling the effects of there being no French offered at the Middle School – it’s the language my child really wanted to study.

    First, like the hospital did, freeze all travel reimbursement for administrators and teachers. Staying close to home keeps the budget down for school districts as well as families. Similarly, try to reduce the line item that is listed as tuition reimbursement – I understand that teachers in our district must have masters degrees within a few years, but that doesn’t mean their educations should come from taxpayers. I freely admit that I don’t know what tuition is being reimbursed, so I have made an assumption as to what it might be. If I am wrong, I am sure you can set us all straight.

    Second, have families chip in if their kids participate in school sports. Yes, there are some families that might not be able to pay fees and their kids might not get to play. For people who are concerned about that, start a Go Fund Me page to set up some scholarships for those kids, or get the sports boosters to chip in. Raise money at the games/events by selling concessions and use that money for scholarships – there are all sorts of ways to cover the costs. But my main point is that school is mainly for educating our kids. Participating in sports are definitely a valuable learning experience for kids, but that doesn’t mean the the public schools should be providing those experiences – look to the example of Europe, where sports are all separate from the schools.

    My third suggestion is likely to be quite controversial, so I’ve saved it for last. I know that technology is an important part of the modern world and that our kids will need to be able to use technology in order to get good jobs. However, I do not believe that the answer is to give every kid from 6th to 12th grade a laptop computer. I can see the value of the computers in the high school, but I would argue strongly against them in the middle school. My child complained this year that one of the teachers did not teach so much as rely on the computer. Too many times my kid came home talking about the games the kids play on the computers at school. And too many parents I have spoken with bemoan the policy of the kids bringing the laptops home–the kids aren’t using them for educational purposes, but to socialize with their friends. And while I understand that not all kids have computers at home, just sending them home with a laptop does not give them internet access, so they are still limited in the assignments they can complete. So, my third suggestion for ways to reduce the budget further would be to not allow middle school students to bring their laptops home. If I remember the blue budget sheet correctly, this would save the district’s portion of the laptop insurance. If you need to go further, use class laptop carts in the middle school instead of the one-to-one computers they have now — teachers could check out the cart for the classes they need them for and teach without them the rest of the time.

    Those are the solutions I have come up with with just a little bit of thought. I am sure others can think of other ways to save money and contribute those as well, but please, we don’t need any more ranting and raving about “just bring it down” or “you are the ones we’ve hired.” We need solutions, not blame or nasty comments. It’s time to come together and brainstorm.

23. I am all for increasing the budget for our children…if there was someway that all the renters in the district could shoulder some of the responsibility financially besides voting on how to spend the property owners’ money

24. I agree with Caption Oblivious!!!

    I came from another state that school taxes were paid by every resident, not just home owners. I bet the renters in the county (as I once was), have kids going to our schools and aren’t paying any portion to the schools.

25. Cap’n Oblivy : Who do you think pays the landlord’s property taxes?

26. Thank you Thank you Thank you Possible Cuts for some constructive information for the budget. Hopefully more parents, teachers, and school employees will get in touch with the Board or school administration on things they have observed in the schools such as waste of supplies (paper and toner), programs or policies not beneficial or benefitting many, excesses, etc. It does not appear that the school has many or any measures in place to eliminate waste and monitor spending. As a parent, has the school ever sent you a questionaire asking for your opinion on a program that your child is enrolled in…such as the laptop program? It would seem that would be one good thing for them to do to evaluate their programs and help determine whether they are worth what they are costing.

27. Might I suggest circumventing dept heads and going to front line staff to ask them where the waste is. I say this as a front line staff member of another government agency. I also say this as a family member of a front line staff member at RSU 9. Sure, there are mandates that have to be heeded, but there is also over accommodation, redundancy, error, and in some cases extravagance.

    I also want to strongly agree with an earlier commenter who pointed out that things have been rising quickly under Supt Ward. Yes, we do have high rates of poverty and special needs, but is this ballooning budget under Supt Ward just a simple coincidence (the influx of special needs students happened at exactly the same time that he arrived) or is it because of a major change in district leadership? Consider the contraction and cuts that happened in Supt Ward’s previous district after he left.

    p.s. Unlike the assumption of others on this board about my political leanings if I don’t agree with the school budget–I vote democrat, I have a master’s degree (in the humanities no less!), and I don’t have any guns.

28. Cut like they did at the hospital. Oh my! My husband just had surgery at the hospital. He sat in the waiting room for 20 mins. before they realized he was there. They cut the person at the desk. Then to find out there was a mix up with the scheduling and he had to wait another 45 mins. No one seem to no why the times they had were different from the times give to the patients coming in. He was discharge before they realized his IV had not been removed. Another patient was discharge, but was not given a medication that was need. He was being called to come back. The hospital staff is now being made to work short handed, and as we all know when you have to do the same amount of work with less people quality can suffer. The Staff at the hospital are very dedicated people who work very hard at there jobs, and so are the people who work for the schools. Is this what we real want for our schools? Everyone over worked and not being able to do the best they can do. Yes we have beautiful schools and a hospital. We now need to make sure the services being provide are as good as the builds.These children are our future. Let’s figure out how to provide them the education to be the best they can be.

29. Cherieann Harrison, thank you for reaching out to us for any input we can provide. Wilton is lucky to have you represent it and its people! Excellent commentaries by all, especially liked Lindy’s, Taxpayer J’s, High Hopes’, and super on Possible Cuts. Teacher, what classes do you teach to groups of 32, 29, 26 etc.? Do they work on computers? Are they math classes? Are they writing classes? History? Phys. Ed.? Art? It makes a difference doesn’t it? Karin, I need to understand why anyone would cut teachers and ed techs. Is it because it leaves money in place for huge administrators’ raises?

30. It seems to me,over the last several months,that the one common complaint has been how much of this money goes to administrative salaries, so NOT directly tied to educating students. Is that anything that can be changed by the board?

31. Is there any teacher in the district that makes $75,000.00/year? $85,000.00/year? In excess of $100,000./year? These are the salaries that need to be made public. What are the job descriptions/salary for each and every person/coordinator/assistant and so on….in the budget. THAT is where the cuts should be made. Show me a classroom teacher making over $100,000/year and I will sit naked in a bathtub at Joel’s old place on a Saturday morning.

32. A. Dulles, you said, “it is not the publics (sic) job to make the decisions of how and where to make the cuts.” Indeed it IS your job. You said No, so now tell your elected officials your informed solutions. Be a part of the process rather than a keyboard warrior. Others here have, finally. You had many, many opportunities to attend many, many public meetings and offer suggestions. Did you? Well now do the heavy lifting your No vote earned. Put up or shut up. Expect to see you at all the upcoming Board meetings asking questions and providing your well-informed solutions.

33. To Possible Cuts: THANK YOU for suggesting kids 6-8 don’t have computers to bring home. I understand the level of need at High School, but I agree the younger kids could use the time in other ways (Like reading a book) But Ole Angus King would shudder. Too bad, Angus. You paying?
    If parents have computers at home, the kids will use those. If kids don’t have computers at home, so be it. It would also cut down on the insurance costs (perhaps)
    I’ve heard complaints that it costs parents a lot of money to provide internet for their kids. (some are a lot more expensive than others) I’ve also heard parents complain their kids use them too late. She wanted the school to install automatic shut-offs. (Expensive? Probably) She should just pull the plug.
    I’m a devout computer user. But for me it’s a tool, not a toy. Always has been. Kids don’t have that ability to shut it off. Parents do!
    The suggested budget for the Technology program was over a million. I was shocked. It wasn’t just computers. It was servers and other types of technological “stuff”. And the school provides for all the teachers, too. M-m-m-m-m

34. Reading through all the comments, I see some good suggestions for cuts. Hopefully some of them will be discussed seriously.

    Here is a suggestion that may seem small, but quickly adds up when you consider the many copies of teaching materials that are downloaded and printed at each school every day: get rid of the color printers. Color copies are significantly more expensive than black and white.

35. The state has a mandate to fund at least 55% of the education costs of the public school districts and 100% of the special education expenses. Currently, that mandate is unmet, with general education funding at approximately 47% and special education coverage at less than 40%.

    For RSU 9 alone, the state would be contributing an estimated additional $2 million to our education costs (amount was provided by the MEA based on Department of Education figures). That means the tax burden placed on local taxpayers would be alleviated by that amount.

    Who on the No side has contacted the Governor’s office or your elected legislators demanding the release of the mandated funding to our schools? Anyone? (Thank you, Doug Hodum, for the information)

36. I have looked carefully at just one area of this budget and I found several hundred thousand dollars of questionable
    Or totally wasteful spending. Here is what I think needs to be cut or reduced in section K (plant maintenance). I
    Received this information from the maintenance director and have copies for anyone to inspect.
    HIgh school: contract services =$26,210 we are planning to have the brand new storm drains video inspected for
    Possible debris. I was told that the DEP required this. I called the DEP and spoke with the director
    Of this department. Absolutely not required!!! Only needed during construction phase.
    Mallet School: contract services=$17,737. Same thing as stated above. Not needed!!!!
    Middle school: contract services=$21,473. I never got an answer to this line item. Unknown????
    Foster tech: Contract services=$10,300. I never got an answer to this line item. Unknown????
    Cape Cod Hill: contract services=$13,027. They want to update the fire alarm and life safety systems. They work
    Fine, but the district likes to keep things very updated. If it works fine, why replace it??
    Cascade Br. Contract services=$16,109. I never got an answer to this line item. UNknown????
    $27,405 for a new fire alarm system. The old system works fine, lets keep it for a few more years.
    G.D.Cushing. Contract services= $7343. No answer. Unknown??? $34,871 for Gym roof that is old, but could
    We get another year or two maybe??? $23,990 to pave the gravel exit driveway. I drove over it.
    There are a lot of town roads in much worse condition. Cut that item for sure. $10,709 for a new
    Fire alarm system. Still works fine. $18,000 for new phones, just because they are getting old too.
    And directly below the $18,000 for the new phones they want $4655 to maintain the old phones.
    That’s a good double dip!!!
    Academy Hill. Contract services= $16,683, all for general maintenance. We hire outside companies to do our in
    House maintenance in every school. But we have our own maintenance people in staff. Let them
    Do all the maintenance. No more outside contracts.
    Bus garage. Contract services=$5350 to hire outside companies to do maintenance that we once did in house.
    Let’s do it in house again. $20,000 for a new boiler. It’s old but still working, maybe another year
    Or two. The boiler in my house is 16 years old. It’s ugly,inefficient, and I want a new one. Nope,
    Can’t afford it. $4770 for new phones in there too. Can it wait???
    And every school has a line item called “work orders and insurance”. The combined total for all schools in this
    Section is $75,000 I would like an explanation for this area.
    The big ticket items are in district wide maintenance. They want $42,000 to maintain our brand new athletic fields.
    Let’s us the gate money from the football games like other school districts. We once did that ourselves, but now
    We let the boosters have all the gate monies. And concession monies go to the band, I think? I’m all for helping
    The boosters and band, but times are tough for everyone. Can we share it 50/50 maybe?? We have a multi-year
    No bid contract with the Thayer Corp from Auburn to tinker with the HVAC systems in our brand new schools. We
    Should have received a 5 year parts warrantee on every new HVAC system, and one year on labor. And they all
    Should have been fine tuned at time of completion before the final payments. Our administration signed a 3 year
    No bid contract with this company (again) this year at a cost of $123,280 per year. We spend another $15,432 for
    Outside contractors to fix this and that instead of using our own staff. And $49,000 per year to mow the lawns at
    All the schools. We could do that in house as well and save a little bit.
    Other areas I think we could cut: no more insurance for the kids to take the laptops home. That is about $25,000
    Per year. Other districts make the parents pay for the small insurance policy (about $40 per laptop). We must
    Stop being the nanny school district. That’s enough for now.

37. Stan Jonathon, glad you read these comments as they provide answers to previous questions you had addressed. By the way, do you have any ideas or knowledge of areas that could be cut?

38. I don’t have kids and my property taxes have gone way up over the past few years, but investing in local education makes the cost worthwhile. These local taxes go to local education while our federal income taxes go to all sorts of causes that we can’t choose. For the sake of our state and local communities, we have a responsibility to provide our children with the best-possible education. With luck, many will choose to stay here after high school or stay/return after college to build our communities and Maine’s economy. Without a quality education, this won’t happen. Education builds community as well as a generous perspective. Our students must have the opportunity to perform at their highest level so that they can earn the best educational, vocational and professional choices after high school.

39. Craig Stickney, Board representative from Chesterville

    First, I must say that the budget deliberations were a joke. One thing the board did agree on the original budget was too high. Any time a member tried to cut the budget, it was shot down by the Superintendent, administrators who were in attendance, and even the other board members. After many hours of nothing but wasting time your administrators were asked to come up with cuts they could live with. There is also a misconception that we cut current teaching positions. The fact is, the positions cut were proposed additions to staff. In the end, the board agreed to the Administrators recommendations that they could live with. So now, the board is the guilty one, as your superintendent and administrators, laid the blame on us. No problem, I have broad shoulders. The fact is 6 out of 10 towns voted this budget down. The message has been sent that more cuts are needed. With the increase in revenues, a 2% decrease in the salary account, and a $100,000 decrease in the contingency accounts, this budget would be more than workable. What bothers me more is all of you people who choose not to use your real names. If you are RSU 9 employees, what are you teaching our kids. You are teaching them to be sneaky, underhanded, don’t admit to anything, and hide from the truth, because you are afraid of what others may think. Education goes much further than the classroom. Think about it.

40. If a budget with an overall tax decrease can not pass, how much of a decrease is needed?

41. It is very disappointing when ones comments aren’t published.
    The people that voted no obviously are sick and tired of continual increases in taxes.
    And now you want those same people to come up with the ” cuts “? Of course any suggestions will be promptly met with ” it’s mandated “, ” I want the best for my kid “.
    I have worked and payed taxes my whole life and feel I’ve earned to have ” the best ” for my wife and I in these last few years. But it is about choices and prioritizing.
    Good luck

42. Lucas is another one who is completely missing the point..or choosing to ignore it.

    You lecture about the importance of education “AS IF” anyone disagrees with that.
    “””NO ONE””” is disputing that. HELLO.

    The issue is about funding.
    And it is complicated by the special interests involved who won’t take no for an answer.

    ANY reasonable person understands you cannot have what you cannot pay for.

    Reality….the way life is.

43. Complletely: My taxes would have gone down this year, if the budget was passed. I could afford that, I could even afford them if they had stayed the same.

    Most peoples taxes would have gone down. My reality is, I vote for budgets to get stuff done. My taxes would have gone down with this budget. What is next?

44. RSU 9 EMPLOYEE your suggestion is just as important as some of the larger suggested amounts! This is the kind of help we need. Hopefully, more RSU 9 employees will step up and offer similar suggestions. Thanks, and the best to you and your fellow colleagues in the upcoming school year! In the near future, hopefully there will be a”group” that you people can call on to assist and answer questions of concern.

45. To A Last Question.

    There you go again…
    Ignoring the real issue.
    It’s the economy…..
    Funding.

    What’s “next” is the new normal where people take back control away from the special interests.
    I’m really glad you can afford your taxes….many cannot.
    I am NOT ok with the struggles the high taxes are causing so many of our folks.
    We need tax cuts…
    Lets get “those things done”… For a change to reality.

    So…change is being forced out of necessity.
    Again…we cannot buy what you can’t pay for.
    The new normal.

46. Increases in property taxes have been hard on people, but the real problem is that the governor has shifted so much of the state’s share of education costs onto the local communities. He promises tax cuts at the state level, but at our expense. At the same time, he proposes even more cuts that benefit the wealthy.
    If you care about educating your kids AND keeping property taxes under control, demand that our politicians live up to the voter mandated 55% share of education expenses. One way you can provide for them to do that without taxing US (those of us who aren’t wealthy) more is to support the Stand Up for Students ballot initiative this fall; it calls for an increase in taxes ONLY for those who make MORE than $200,000. Don’t tell me they can’t afford it!

47. The real problem, if I make less than you; by your logic, you should pay for my food. Everyone has the right to eat right? Just like everyone has the right to education. How about the parents pay 55%?

48. To Not feeling the bern

    That’s the typical canned response for those who don’t want fair taxes. Education, along with many other things like good roads and fire protection (if you had a fire should you have to pay all of the costs of the fire department just because I haven’t used it?) are some of the things that WE ALL want our government to provide. Our country has been based on having taxes to provide societal needs since its inception. While there may sometimes be question about which of those “needs” to provide, some are fairly obvious and education is one of those, because we all benefit from the education that is provided to all children. Could your parents have afforded to pay for your tuition for 12 years of school? I don’t have kids, but I am happy to pay my fair share of taxes to pay for education because someone did that for me (and you) and it is of benefit to us all; an educated work force attracts businesses and provides jobs, as well as taxes. If education wasn’t publicly funded, only the wealthy would have an education, as it was in the Dark Ages in Europe (no coincidence in the name of that period), and you probably wouldn’t be writing to this forum.
    It’s the “fair share” part that is a problem. Property taxes are regressive because there are plenty of people who own property (perhaps that they have owned for a long time or that has been passed down in the family) that is now taxed at a rate far above what their income can support; do you think they should all lose their homes? While at the same time there are people making huge salaries and paying very little in taxes (including Rep. Poliquin; interesting that the very wealthy can afford to take advantage of all the tax loopholes). The governor wants to do away with income taxes completely, but with common-sense tax reform, income taxes could be very fair- you make more, you pay more. Just do away with all of the loopholes and the wealthy would be paying their fair share, and the tax rate would probably go down for everyone (according to many financial experts). But, since fair tax reform is probably a long time coming (since politicians follow the golden rule-he who has the gold makes the rules), OUR next best recourse is to support the Stand up for Students referendum. It will lower taxes for the people who need it most while coming closer to providing for the needs of our children; sounds like a win-win to me.

49. Middle School sports – why do they need to be part of the school or coaches paid? I am not trying to sound rude but MB youth football & cheering are not part of the school and several kids play those sports, coaches are volunteers. Softball/Baseball we have our Rec programs offering these too with volunteer coaching and these programs work well. As parents of those programs I’ve often hated that kids not doing school sports don’t get looked at as doing sports/athletes at end of year awards and so forth. Why not encourage Rec Programs.