Alan Hawkins, the interim superintendent of Sheepscot Valley RSU 12, has enacted a spending freeze in an effort to accommodate roughly $500,000, [in] according to an email from Gerald Nault, “budget item excesses.”
Chair of the RSU’s finance committee, Nault’s email said the excesses are roughly made up of $200,000 in special education costs, $150,000 in personnel-related matters, and $150,000 in varied fees and retroactive payments for collective bargaining agreements.
“I’m watching the budget very, very carefully…because of some things that were not built into the budget to make sure we’re not overspending in any specific line, or if we are overspending, it goes to the finance committee for them to look at it,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins said he enacted the freeze in late October and told the board of directors he was “putting a freeze on anything I can that does not totally interrupt a child’s learning.”
“Anyone who has any requests for items that could be frozen otherwise, they send me the request along with the argument, what they have to say about” the item and why it is necessary, Hawkins said.
Field trips were initially part of the spending freeze, but Hawkins said he has since changed his stance on them.
“What I’m doing right now, when a field trip has been preplanned…I’m picking those up to take care of them,” Hawkins said. Any new requests coming in are not being considered at this time, he said.
Hawkins said he is trying to minimize expenses in all of the budget line items to accommodate the excesses. One effort is to monitor for line items that don’t necessarily use the entire budgeted amount, such as less heating oil being used during a warmer winter.
“You have money that has been committed, but they don’t take as much as you plan on,” Hawkins said. “There are always opportunities for money to come back into the system.”
“What I am really looking at is to see what we need to change in order to get to our bottom line,” he said.
Hawkins said four students have required outside placement for special education needs that were not anticipated for this school year. Each one of those placements costs $55,000 and contributes to the budget excesses, Hawkins said.
“If we cannot meet [students’] needs… then we need to take a look at outside placement. Outside placement is not an easy choice and we try to avoid it as much as possible, but we have some kids who truly need that placement,” Hawkins said.
The placements are not permanent, but are a program that teaches the students skills that will allow them to re-enter the public school setting, Hawkins said.
Another factor is the movement of students into the RSU that require specific programming, and a need for educational technician and teacher positions to oversee those programs, Hawkins said.
“We have had to take a look at hiring people who were not in the initial budget,” Hawkins said.
A contract approved in June between the RSU and its teachers has required $93,000 in retroactive payments that were not budgeted for, Hawkins said. Funds had been set aside for those retroactive payments, but the amount required by the contract exceeded that amount, he said.
At the RSU 12 board meeting on Nov. 8, the board approved a contract with the RSU’s support staff that will also require retroactive payments, Hawkins said. That contract still requires approval from the support staff, he said.
Hawkins said at this point, it isn’t so much a spending freeze but rather a tighter control over where finances are going. Hawkins said he is watching “where money is going, what it’s going for, and how it is being spent at that point in time.”
