At a meeting on Jan. 24, the Nobleboro Budget Committee reviewed and unanimously approved the 2011 Nobleboro Central School budget as presented.
The proposed $2,782,745 budget, which will now go before voters at town meeting, calls for a 1.4 percent ($39,182) increase to the overall budget, with a .2 percent ($4,130) decrease to the town’s contribution to the budget.
Based on the preliminary estimate the AOS 93 school district received from the state, the state’s contribution to the budget is expected to decrease slightly this year. However, the overall non-local contribution is expected to increase by $12,567 due to a one-time Federal Jobs Bill payment of $16,583 that the school will receive this year.
The relative lack of change in the total budget this year comes in spite of the fact that the town made the final payment on the school building last year – a savings of $142,435 in this year’s budget.
That savings, in addition to savings associated with a decrease in overall enrollment and a decrease to the principal’s salary and benefits, is largely offset by a $205,619 increase to the facilities maintenance budget this year.
$179,800 of that is budgeted to replace the roof on the building, which has been leaking and in need of repair for several years, said Josh Hatch, Chairman of the NCS board, at the meeting.
Engineering estimates for the project put the total cost at about $368,000, said AOS 93 Superintendent Bob Bouchard. The actual cost of the project is expected to be lower.
The budget calls for $175,000 to be appropriated from taxes this year to pay for the project, and the remainder of the cost – about $200,000 – to be borrowed. The interest on the loan will be paid with a $4,800 payment in this year’s budget.
The loan will be paid back in two payments of about $100,000 each in 2012 and 2013.
There is also a $25,683 increase to the plant maintenance line in the proposed budget as compared to the 2010 budget. Bouchard characterized the $33,363 budgeted for plant maintenance as a return to normal after a dramatic cut to that budget last year.
In 2009, the budget for plant maintenance was $35,140 and in 2010, the budget was cut to $7,680.
The result of that cut appears to be a lack of necessary maintenance on the school building. The building has eight air handlers, which bring fresh air into the building, heat it and purify it. It was recently discovered that several of those air handlers had malfunctioned and were simply shut off, Bouchard and Hatch said.
Avoiding maintenance on the air handlers “was an effort to make the budget look a certain way,” Hatch told the budget committee. The 2010 budget was made under the previous NCS principal, Mark Deblois.
It’s unclear exactly how long the air handlers have been off, but it appears to have been “at least a year,” Bouchard said.
The problem was discovered when a staff member at the school complained that she thought the air in the building was aggravating her asthma, Bouchard said. Following that complaint, the district contacted a state agency that did air quality tests throughout the building.
“The only result they thought was a problem was elevated carbon dioxide levels in several of the rooms,” Bouchard said. Elevated carbon dioxide levels are an indication that air is not being exchanged properly and points to the disabled air handlers as the cause of the problem, Bouchard said.
Repairs have been done on the air handlers, and seven of the eight are now in use. The eighth needs a new heating coil, which should be installed soon, Bouchard said.
Once those repairs are complete, the district will have the air quality retested, Bouchard said.
“That’s the kind of maintenance we don’t want to defer,” Bouchard said.
The rest of savings from the lack of a loan payment on the building, etc., is consumed by the reintroduction of budgeted funds for field trips and other school sponsored activities that were cut in the previous years’ budgets.
Members of the Budget Committee said they were pleased to see these items return to the budget without an overall increase, and said that it makes it “feel more like a complete school again.”
“These are things that schools should provided,” Hatch said. He said that in the last few years, parents fundraised to pay for field trips and uniforms for the sports teams, and that teachers paid for some school supplies out of pocket.
The school will also add baseball and softball teams next year, which the school has not had for several years, said NCS Principal Ann Hassett.
It’s possible that Nobleboro may see a decrease to the budget in 2012, as the funds needed for the roof repair will drop from $175,000 this year to around $100,000 next year, and declining enrollment should decrease the cost of high school tuition about $90,000, Bouchard said.
Some of that savings will likely continue to be used for building maintenance, as there is a major reconstruction needed in the next few years on the concrete steps at the school, Bouchard said.
