Bristols $8.3 million education budget was approved at a special town meeting on April 28. The vote was 101-88, requiring town administrators to count the voting cards. (Emily Bracher photo).
After rejecting the education budget at their annual town meeting on March 17, Bristol residents approved the updated $8,300,173.76 education budget at a special town meeting on Tuesday, April 28.
Article 7, the system administration budget that was originally voted down in March, passed 101-88.
The budget is an increase of $128,888.18 or 1.58% increase from last year. The updated version is a $58,957.2 or 0.71% decrease from the originally proposed budget. Bristol taxpayers will be responsible for $7,269,808.30, an increase of $239,917.49 or 3.41% from last year.
During the annual town meeting on March 17, Bristol residents did not approve the $332,360.94 system administration budget, which was a $97,094.74 or 41.27% increase from the previous year. Housed within the line are the funds for Bristol’s assessment for the superintendent and executive director positions within Johns Bay Coastal Alliance Education Service Center. As of July 1, Bristol and South Bristol will withdraw from AOS 93 to form a two-town education service center.
The original rejection was because many residents believed there was no need for both an executive director and superintendent position.
After a month of discussion, the town presented a $273,403.74 system administration budget, a decrease of $58,956.26 or 17.74%.
“We felt strongly that building and owning an (education service center) is the best way to move our schools forward in the future,” Bristol School Committee Chair Becky Cooper said.
Residents approved the updated budget with plenty of discussion. The meeting began with a presentation by the Bristol School Committee.
In the presentation, Cooper said having an executive director was what was best for the school district. She also addressed the concerns about transparency, saying voters do not decide on school staff and administration.
“We feel like the local control that we’re really hoping to achieve with the creation of the Johns Bay Coastal Alliance is a focus on our two communities’ schools, and one that is tailored to meet the needs and the interests of both our schools and our families and our communities in these towns,” Cooper said. “We are two geographically close and similar towns, and we have much more in common than we do with some of our neighbors who were in the AOS with us, who have a lot less stability than we do in various other areas.”
Even with the decrease, the Bristol Budget Committee rejected the new budget proposed by the Bristol School Committee when it was presented on April 13. Budget committee members said they believed the administrative costs are too high compared to the number of students Bristol serves.
Many residents frowned upon what they called a lack of transparency in the process of shifting to an education service center. Those opposed were adamantly against the executive director position, believing the superintendent could do the work of both roles.
During the April 28 meeting, resident John Gomez said those opposed to the system administration budget and the executive director position are not against funding education but are against the way the transition has happened.
“The vote today is being framed by the ESC board as a ‘yes’ vote to support the education of our children and a ‘no’ vote to deny the education of our children,” Gomez said. “This is disingenuous, and it ignores the glaring problems with the formation of the ESC administration.”
Gomez and others demanded accountability from the school committee and officials, believing the lack of it would “erode local control.” Some of the issues, Gomez said, were the rejection of the recommendation from members of the hiring committee by the Johns Bay Coastal Alliance Education Service Center Board.
In February, the Johns Bay Coastal Alliance Education Service Center Board unanimously approved the hiring of Bristol Consolidated School Principal Jennifer Ribeiro as the organization’s superintendent and curriculum coordinator and AOS 93 Executive Director of Finance and Operations Peter Nielsen as its executive director.
A few of the attendees of the April 28 meeting alluded to Nielsen not being the hiring committee’s recommendation for the executive director position. Nielsen did not speak during the April 28 meeting.
“If there is no accountability between the ESC board and administrative staff due to conflicts of interest, it will be impossible to manage administrative staff to ensure we can continue to achieve the goals our town has set for our school, regardless of the people occupying those administrative decisions for this ESC administration, conflicts of interest between the people making hiring decisions, and the people being hired,” Gomez said.
The school committee responded by saying the hiring process was legitimate. Board members Katherine Thompson and Emile Lugosch both said the education service center would not be able to run without the executive director position. Lugosch added it was required by the state and there wasn’t really any choice in the matter.
Resident Jessica Westhaver disagreed with Lugosch’s statement. She said she had spoken to Maine Department of Education team member Denise Towers, who said the state in no way suggests or doesn’t suggest the positions. Towers said it was up to the individual to decide what services are used and how the position is approached.
“I just hope that we don’t rush into a process and we sign multiyear contracts for an unknown right now. This is our trial year,” Westhaver said.
Once the system administration budget was approved, residents also approved the final three articles.
Article 13 authorized the school committee to expend the total $8,300,173.76 budget. Article 14 and 15 are responsible for the raising of funds for the education budget. Article 15 received a vote of 96-63.
The Bristol School Committee next meets at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 7 at BCS. For more information, go to aos93.org/o/bcs.
