With a vocal minority crying “not fair,” voters at the RSU 12 budget adoption meeting Saturday agreed to the $26.1 million spending plan.
The division revealed continuing pockets of discontent primarily with the state’s school consolidation law.
Among 90 voters from the eight towns in Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12, about a dozen mostly Alna residents, with support from Westport Island and Wiscasset, repeatedly rejected warrant articles presented at Windsor Elementary School during the fourth attempt to pass a 2010 budget.
The southern three RSU member communities have consistently voted no since the first attempt to pass a budget last June.
As small towns that send students to Wiscasset and other schools, Alna and Westport Island have transitioned from a simpler system costing about a half-million dollars to tuition their students and pay a superintendent stipend, to a more complex arrangement in which their education money is a fraction of a much bigger budget.
Last week’s open meeting approval will be clinched or tossed Tues., Jan. 26 when voters in each town cast their ballots at the polls, the second part of the process known as the “validation vote.”
Other RSU 12 member towns are Somerville, Whitefield, Chelsea, Windsor and Palermo.
Sparking the protest Saturday was the impact of the cost sharing formula.
Alna town treasurer Nick Caristo said he saw “inequities” among the towns. Looking at a $6500 per student cost and the fact that Alna, Wiscasset and Westport Island are paying $9000, Caristo said, “The remainder of the RSU is paying much less. I’m asking the board to look at this inequity. These three towns are bearing the brunt of the RSU costs.”
Supt. Greg Potter acknowledged that during the regional planning process leading up to forming the RSU “there was lengthy discussion” about how to set a fair formula for sharing costs. “The actual cost and expense of educating students are different in certain areas,” said Potter. “In 2009 it cost more to educate students in Wiscasset than in Palermo.” Besides the per pupil cost, there are variable valuation differences in the towns that affect the cost. “Every time [the planning committee] applied valuation or per pupil costs, there were huge winners and huge losers.” However, Potter added, there is a built-in component to review the cost sharing three years into the RSU.
Ralph Hilton, of Alna, asserted, “The funding formula is why this budget doesn’t pass.” He also disliked not being able to review “a 30 percent difference” until three years from the unit’s startup. “I’ve never voted against a school budget in my life. We got forced into this [school consolidation]. We were threatened [with penalties]…We in the south are picking up the biggest share of the cost.”
Again, Potter said the RSU plan requires reviewing the cost sharing but no changes can be made in the formula for the current budget.
Chris Johnson, who represents Somerville on the board of directors, said, “It’s the same formula as what you were paying last year,” before consolidation. He and other speakers said the focus should be on educating children.
Richard DeVries, who represents Westport Island on the board, agreed with Hilton. “We’ve been stuck with this by the state. If you want changes to that formula, it has to be ‘we the people,'” he said, advocating a march on the State House.
Carl Pease, of Windsor, said he had served on the RSU planning committee. “No matter what we did, there were some winners and some losers. We didn’t know what the actual costs would be because the RSU wasn’t up and running. In three years we would have better figures to see what the funding formula should be.” Still, he added, “There’s no way on God’s green earth where you’ll come up with a funding formula that will be fair to everybody. The important thing is are the kids being educated in a way they can make a living when they get out of school? You’re legally and morally obligated to educate your students in a way that’s effective to them.”
Skewing Alna’s situation was a select board error in committing taxes. Chair Billie Willard said the town’s fiscal year runs from February to January and she originally committed taxes based on one and a half years. The error, which she said has been corrected, increased the average property tax by $1000. Wealthier property owners saw $3000 and $4000 increases. “I committed for a larger figure” than necessary, she said. Nonetheless, she maintained, there still would have been a 22.5 mil rate.
What particularly bothers her townspeople, Willard said, is “how much our cost to the RSU increased. Last year we paid $537,298 for schools,” and this year the local cost is $917,093. The figure reflects both the Essential Programs and Services (EPS) formula and the additional money required to meet the budget set by the RSU board.
That local share was set at a 15 percent increase for all the towns.
Potter pointed out that towns in the RSU have seen nearly a 14 percent reduction in state funding, or $1.76 million less than in fiscal year 2009. The board slashed from its budget the $400,000 that equaled the amount of the state’s most recent curtailment. He regretted being able to pass that $400,000 on to taxpayers.
The budget to be approved represents a .7 percent increase ($182,830) over the restated 2009 budget.
RSU 12 is dealing with multiple challenges in its first year of startup, he said, including assuming the cost of summer salary debt. “Many towns were paying teachers in July and August. The RSU assumed this cost. Auditors at the state expect a fund balance sufficient at year’s end to pay those bills that have accrued, and that’s about three-quarters of a million dollars,” the superintendent said.
Since the numbers at Saturday’s meeting were published, Potter said Alna’s and Westport Island’s estimated remaining balances (carryover) at the end of 2008-09 have been nudged up from $125,000 to $197,000 for Alna and $225,000 to almost $300,000 for Westport. These amounts can be used as a credit to reduce each town’s contribution to the RSU.
Potter also said he hoped “to find $1.2 million at least in savings,” since he expects a further $1.1 million state curtailment in 2011. “It is very serious,” he said.
Underlying Potter’s message was a plea for patience as, going forward, the administration builds its 2010-11 budget outside “the rush-rush of the consolidation year.”
Article 14 required a written ballot on raising and appropriating the $5,843,030 in additional local funds. The figure exceeds the EPS funding model because EPS “does not recognize all costs of special education programs, transportation and extra-curricular programs and the costs of maintaining a low student-teacher ratio,” according to an explanatory note. The results were 63 voting in favor, 27 against.
Rep. Lisa Miller (D-Somerville) also attended the meeting. In her recent newsletter, she reported having submitted a bill (L.D. 1732) to permit towns to withdraw from an RSU. It is patterned largely after a law that allows withdrawal from SADs (school administration districts). A hearing has been scheduled for Mon., Jan. 25 at 1 p.m. in Room 202, Cross Office Building, in Augusta.
Supt. Potter’s PowerPoint presentation at the Jan. 16 meeting is available at the svrsu.org website.
