Damariscotta voters rejected a secondary education budget proposal with a 34.97 percent increase during a special town meeting at the town office Wednesday, May 6.
The 2014-2015 budget proposal totals $1,713,896, an increase of $444,092 over the 2013-2014 budget. The secondary education budget includes all expenses for Damariscotta students in grades nine through 12.
Previous budget proposals included a 23.29 percent hike and a 29.46 percent hike. The Damariscotta School Committee approved the third figure the day before the meeting.
Opponents of the budget focused on the spike in the budget as a whole and especially on an approximately $200,000 expense for a single special education student to attend school out of state.
School officials revised the latter figure upward from $135,000 before the meeting.
“The initial figure was preliminary,” Central Lincoln County School System Superintendent Steve Bailey said. “Several different possibilities were being explored and the latest one is the one the team has determined based on information we had from the experts as well as what’s appropriate for the student.”
Damariscotta resident and small-business owner Ann Pinkham was one of several taxpayers to express concern about the expense.
The law requires towns to pay for education until a student graduates from high school or turns 20. If the student is 14 or 15, “we may have not just one year, we may have five years of the $200,000,” Pinkham said. “That’s a million dollars.”
Other speakers expressed frustration about the school system’s inability to explain exactly why the student’s tuition costs $200,000. The law prevents school officials from revealing much information for confidentiality reasons.
“I think it behooves us to know something about the nature of the special need,” resident George Betke said. “Is it educational? Is it medical? Is it emotional? What is it that could possibly cost $200,000 a year plus transportation that is suddenly sprung upon us at this late date?”
“It’s asking a lot of a small community with a limited budget to spring for this kind of money,” Betke said.
Eric Herlan is a special education attorney with Drummond Woodsum, which represents the school system. Herlan fielded questions about the issue throughout most of the meeting.
The town has little choice about whether to cover the expense, according to Herlan.
“The most immediate budgetary dilemma that a small town faces when they look at this is, whatever you folks do here tonight with the budget, the school department is still going to have a duty to make and pay for that placement,” Herlan said.
“The placement decision is not here before folks to consider,” Herlan said. “Congress gave that power to this (individualized education program) team to make and the team has made this decision based on the kid’s needs.
“They looked locally, they looked in the state of Maine, and none of those placements would work, so then they look out of state at more expensive placements.”
Damariscotta would receive some reimbursement from the state for the tuition. The state currently reimburses Damariscotta for 30 percent of special education expenses two years after the expense.
Due to the extraordinarily high tuition for this student, the state would likely contribute another $45,000 with a one-year delay, according to Bailey and Herlan.
Thus, the state would pay around $105,000 of the $200,000, though Damariscotta would still have to raise the money up front.
School and town officials pointed to Congress and the Maine Legislature as the source of the town’s dilemma and encouraged residents to contact their representatives at both levels.
“When Congress passed this law, they committed to funding, I think, at that time, 25 percent of the cost of special education,” Herlan said. “They’ve never come anywhere near to reaching those numbers.”
“You should all be writing to your congressman,” Damariscotta Selectman Jim Cosgrove said. “You’re barking up the wrong tree here.”
Damariscotta resident David Gaul redirected residents to the state Legislature.
“I think it’s more important to go to our own Legislature to deal with this matter,” Gaul said. “You can get to them and they are the ones who control the money in the state of Maine for special education needs.”
“This is a very unique issue,” Gaul said. “Maybe they would give some attention to listening to our concerns.”
Damariscotta Town Manager Matt Lutkus noted that a 2004 referendum requires the state to pay 100 percent of special education expenses, yet it never has.
Lutkus and selectmen have communicated with state Sen. Chris Johnson and state Rep. Mick Devin about the issue, he said.
Selectman George Parker said the selectmen have discussed pursuing a state-funded “community insurance plan that would cover a case like this above a certain amount of money.”
The Legislature would have to pass a bill, “but that may be easier to do than trying to get the state to come up with money, increased money, for the whole program,” Parker said.
Ultimately, voters easily defeated the key articles on the special town meeting warrant – the regular instruction and special-education instruction categories, the budget summary, and the articles to raise money for the budget.
The Damariscotta School Committee will meet soon and bring another budget proposal – or the same proposal – back to the town.
“It is the board’s budget,” Bailey said. “At the same time, I don’t see the numbers changing, but they’ll have to have a conversation about that.”
“If a budget’s not approved by July 1, then we revert to the totals that were previously passed in the ’14-’15 budget” until the town passes a new budget, Bailey said.
The school system would eventually run out of money if the town does not pass another budget, as the 2014-2015 budget falls $444,092 short of 2015-2016 expenses.
“We will receive invoices for the private school tuition,” Bailey said. “We will receive invoices for the special education costs for these students.”
