The Great Salt Bay Community School cafeteria in Damariscotta filled with over 75 voters on Wednesday, Dec. 20 as AOS 93 residents faced increasingly expensive decisions about technology and staff retention in their central office’s budget.
An hour and a half of discussion and attempts to reduce the budget concluded in $1,365,345.49 being approved for the coming year, an increase of $270,817.72 or 24.74% from 2023.
The bulk of the increase, and most at issue Dec. 20, was the addition of a contested IT director position for AOS 93 and raises between 12-18% for the school system’s highest-paid administrators.
The AOS 93 Board, which decides what budget to put before voters, split on these subjects earlier this month, ultimately recommending the $1.37 million budget proposed by the business office with Jefferson and Nobleboro representatives voting against it.
AOS 93 consists of Bremen, Bristol, Damariscotta, Jefferson, Newcastle, Nobleboro, and South Bristol.
The voting meeting opened with general public comment questioning the rapid increase of central office costs over the past several years at a faster pace than enrollment growth. This is the second year in a row of the budget increasing by over 24%.
Wayne Parlin, a member of the Jefferson School Committee, proposed lower amendments to each of this year’s cost articles. All but one were voted down with closely divided counts.
The first warrant article recommended $331,709.74 for special services, an increase of $47,150.22 or 16.56%, mostly in salary increases. Special services include the director and assistant director of special education, along with department expenses. Parlin’s amendment to reduce the budget figure by $17,500 passed 41-33.
Introducing it, he said the board’s stated attempt to retain employees by increasing salaries to be closer to neighboring districts is ineffective, and that increases for other employees would be fairer.
“We cannot compete in a wage war,” he said.
The proposal for $224,509.50 in student and staff support, an increase of $141,681.68, or 171.05%, was mostly made up of the IT director position, which totals about $130,000 including benefits.
Parlin moved to reduce the budget category to $114,209.50, which would have removed the IT director and cut a $10,000 raise for the assistant superintendent in half. His amendment would have left $23,000 for AOS 93 to continue contracting IT services.
When introducing the new position earlier this month, Business Manager Peter Nielsen said responsibilities would include cyber security for buildings and school devices, planning, data management, curriculum and professional development, and grant writing. He and other administrators have said technology’s presence and reach is growing in schools so rapidly that adding IT staff is unavoidable.
Opponents of the position, particularly in Jefferson in Nobleboro, have said the director role is too expensive and would unevenly benefit different schools while costing all of them.
Nobleboro resident Peter Gabbe said the director role “is biased against towns that are progressive” and already have technology positions in their schools, such as Jefferson and Nobleboro.
K.J. Flewelling, the current technology coordinator at GSB who devotes some hours to the central office, said having a dedicated employee for administrative work would save schools money in the long run and keep their employees available for students. Nielsen said the position would prevent schools from having to add a second IT employee in the future.
Erin Miller, of Newcastle, said she had held a similar position in the past and it is difficult to fill, requiring extensive experience.
“There is no way that this can continue to be a one-person job,” she said.
The amendment failed 54-29 after a recount. The original proposal then passed 51-36, creating the new position and maintaining raises.
Article three, for system administration, proposed $817,383.25 as a combination of the superintendent’s and business offices. The office of the superintendent totals $396,543.25, an increase of $38,716.55, or 10.81%; the business office totals $420,840, an increase of $51,526.27, or 13.95%.
Parlin’s amendment would have reduced the system administration budget to $810,258.25 by cutting raises to the superintendent and the business manager so that each increase totaled $5,000. As proposed by the board, the superintendent would have received a $16,125 raise for a total salary of $150,000 and the business manager a $10,000 raise to a total salary of $120,250.
Nielsen took the microphone for an explanation of the numbers, which he said were designed to give the school board resources to hire new candidates if they need to, not to give specific employees more salary.
“You’re not handing out raises tonight,” he said.
He met with the Maine Department of Labor to discuss wage increases that would be fair to taxpayers. Wages in the state have increased 12.9% over the last two years, he said, and it would take a 7.9% salary increase this year to keep compensation level.
A salary compensation chart from neighboring districts showed AOS 93 is the lowest-paying for its superintendent and on the low range for the assistant superintendent, business manager, and special education director.
“This is the data that’s real,” Nielsen said. “This is the reality.”
In response to audience question, Nielsen said compensation in other towns was not tied to how much experience or education their superintendents had.
“Where does it go? What are we doing?” Gabbe asked. “Year after year after year, where does it end?”
Matthew Hanly, Bremen’s representative on the AOS 93 Board, said raises for employees are determined by the board after performance reviews and may be less than the budgeted amounts.
“To shortchange them … is so shortsighted,” he said. “I beg you not to approve this amendment.”
The amendment failed 44-34 and the original proposal passed 45-34.
The final warrant article, summarizing the approved budget of $1,365,345.49, passed after some confusion about the proper process for incorporating the amended amount.
Each school committee within AOS 93 creates a separate budget for education expenses, which residents in its town vote on at annual town meeting in the spring.
The meeting recording is available at youtube.com/@aos9324. Budget documents are available at aos93.org under the “documents” tab.
