Jefferson citizens reduced their education budget by $240,000, eliminating funding for four teaching positions, when they met in open town meeting July 9. It was the second such meeting on the fiscal year 2014 budget.
Town Budget Committee member Wayne Parlin rose at the start of discussion to make an amendment to the regular instruction budget line. He said the proposed budget asked for $632,000 more than called for in the state’s Essential Programs and Services formula and included four more teaching positions than the minimum required by the state.
Parlin’s amendment passed, 61 to 46.
After Alternative Organizational Structure 93 Superintendent Steve Bailey and Business Manager Katherine Hunt recalculated the total budget figure and aligned the changes to the various revenue sources, the total budget approved at the July 9 meeting was $4,937,397.
Of that, the required local share under EPS is $2,731,350 and the additional local share is $459,604. This exceeds the EPS amount by $392,117.
The following morning, Bailey said the regular instruction category includes teacher and educational technician salaries, benefits for those two groups, secondary tuition, and supplies.
“It will take three or four full-time teachers or combinations of positions and supplies to get to that number,” he said of the reduction. “Class size would need to go up from projected levels, and less supports would be available from support staff.”
He said arts and other co-curricular programs could be affected as well.
Bailey pointed to the progress Jefferson has made to move from being designated as a Continuous Improvement Priority School under the No Child Left Behind Act.
“For a school that has worked extremely hard for students to demonstrate so much growth during the past two years to move out of CIPS status – Jefferson Village School is now making Adequate Yearly Progress based on positive growth test scores on the NECAP state assessment – it is potentially harmful to reduce the supports for students that have been so instrumental in helping them achieve to these high levels,” he said.
Bailey said a large bloc of voters at the meeting arrived with an agenda to cut the budget.
“I don’t really think they understand the impact of what they did last night,” he said.
Citizens at a May 21 open budget meeting questioned whether the school could operate well with staff reductions that were proposed at that time. An amendment offered by Shawn St. Cyr, to increase the regular instruction line by $60,000 in order to fund an additional teacher in the event that kindergarten enrollment continues to grow, failed by a vote of 22 to 26 at that time.
On June 17, the Jefferson School Board voted unanimously to add $60,000 to the revised budget presented for their consideration, after the June 4 budget validation vote rejected the education budget by a vote of 83 to 66. The intent of the addition was to provide funds for a kindergarten or second grade teacher, depending on how enrollment develops over the course of the summer.
Since that time the Legislature passed its budget, providing local districts with final state subsidy amounts. Jefferson is slated to receive $86,875 which was reflected in the new proposal as a reduction in the local appropriation required under the EPS model. For 2014 the state will pay approximately 45.16 percent of the EPS amount, according to Bailey.
After taking out the state subsidy for debt service on construction of the Jefferson Village School, the amount the state pays to support education in the town is 14.57 percent, with the remainder being the required local share. A legal mandate passed in 2005, requiring the state to pay 55 percent of EPS, has never been satisfied.
Bailey said 78.5 percent of Maine school units approved budgets that exceeded EPS in fiscal year 2013.
Other changes Bailey outlined July 9 included the elimination of part-time guidance and gifted and talented staff positions and reduced special education revenues. The total budget figure presented at the start of the July 9 meeting was $5,177,397. This represented a 1 percent decrease in expenditures from last year and would have called for an increase of $234,241 in the town’s share of costs.
In response to Parlin’s proposal, School Committee member Raymond Anderson said expected class sizes dictated the staffing request. Current enrollment for the fall shows 16 students in kindergarten, 20 in grade 1, 21 in grade 2, 18 in grade 3 and 21 in grade 4. Grades 5 and 6 have two teachers with 42 students between them and grades 7 and 8 have two teachers with 38 students total.
“Past history tells us at least three or four more students may enroll in any one of these classes over the course of the summer,” Anderson said. “Classes larger than 16 students are detrimental to our children.”
“The EPS model attempts to determine an adequate level of funding,” he said. “I don’t believe we should settle for adequate.” He said Jefferson should not base its education budget on a formula that is “terribly flawed.”
Chairman Robert Westrich said the EPS system assumes 17 students per teacher as a school-wide average. He said rural schools, with their smaller populations, need a teacher for every 11 students.
Babette White said the number of teachers in the budget has not increased. A one-year kindergarten teaching position was included in last year’s budget.
Citizens questioned the continued payment of all but $400 of teachers’ annual health insurance cost and a related subsidy for family members’ coverage.
“The young people in Iraq and Afghanistan pay more than these teachers for health insurance,” David Bond said.
After a brief discussion that included a suggestion to renegotiate the teachers’ contract in regard to insurance, the amended article for regular instruction passed, 62 to 47.
Parlin also offered an amendment to cut $61,000 the budget for transportation and buses.
“Jefferson is not required to provide secondary transportation,” Parlin said. “But we do.” He said students’ families used to pay the fees for a bus to Lincoln Academy. When the driver of that bus retired, the town took on the expense.
“It’s a subsidy to Lincoln Academy,” he said. The district provides a bus and driver to take students to Lincoln. Erskine Academy provides a bus at a daily per-pupil price.
Citizens discussed alternatives that included negotiation a per-pupil price and encouraging car-pooling.
“The entire AOS decided to have transportation to high school to encourage students not to have an excuse not to go to school,” Bailey said.
“Please don’t take little knives to this budget and hurt our kids’ education,” Anderson said. He called paying for schools a “moral responsibility.” He said the budget process begins each December and encouraged citizens to participate in its early phases.
White said car-pooling would increase the danger of young drivers getting involved in accidents.
Parlin’s amendment failed in a show of hands, with the original article to spend $352,364 for transportation and buses gaining approval.
“There are other complicating issues regarding this late date and contracts that have already been issued,” Bailey said. ” We can’t spend the money but we also have to abide by law as well as collective bargaining agreements.”
A budget validation referendum will be held by secret ballot Tuesday, July 23 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Jefferson Fire Station. The Jefferson School Board will meet Wednesday, July 24 at 6 p.m. to consider its next steps.
For more information about the budget and the Jefferson School Committee call the AOS 93 Central Office at 563-3044. The Jefferson Town Office can be reached at 549-7401.
