At a glance, the first incarnation of the proposed budget for Sheepscot Valley RSU 12 looks big, but that is only because of a new approach for developing it, according to RSU 12 Finance Manager Belinda Waterhouse.
Instead of the way the RSU has historically developed budgets – setting a monetary goal and having administrators submit their budgets with just what they need – interim Superintendent Alan Hawkins has asked for budgets including what they would like for their departments, Waterhouse said.
“What he’s trying to do is have the administrators give him a budget of things [that] if they could have it all, this is what they’d have,” she said.
Right now, the preliminary budget is roughly 10 percent larger than the current school year’s nearly $26 million budget, but the Finance Committee will be working with administrators and department heads to trim those proposed budgets back, Waterhouse said.
“The administrators know this; they know they’re not going to get everything they’re asking for. They were told that right up front,” she said.
Using the items that do not make the cut for the coming year’s budget, the administrators will create three- to five-year budgeting plans. The process will help provide continuity for the long-term planning process instead of looking at the budget like it is a whole new thing every year, Waterhouse said.
The overall increase includes the administrators’ wish-list items, anticipated increases in tuition costs for students that attend schools outside the district, increases in salary and benefit costs from contracts with district employee bargaining units, and the proposed shift of the state’s share of teacher retirement to the district, she said.
“I think it’s a great thing; I’m glad he’s doing it,” Waterhouse said of the new process. “I don’t mind working for three years to get what I really think would be good.”
At the first of four public preliminary budget discussions, Sheepscot Valley RSU 12 officials, board members and employees took a first look at some parts of next year’s district budget.
The first meeting, held at Chelsea Elementary School on March 6, focused on the budgets for the district’s superintendent’s and business offices, vocational, elementary and secondary tuition costs, food service, maintenance, transportation, operations and custodial costs.
The four-week series of meetings will hopefully produce a budget that reflects the needs of both the students and the school board, Hawkins said at the meeting.
In a brief presentation, Hawkins touched on a number of district-wide strategies that address issues such as safety and security, consistent curriculum, and using technology to support both staff and students.
The demands on students have changed from what they were 40 years ago, and the RSU needs to have academic programs and support staff – such as guidance counselors and social workers – available for the students to meet those new demands, Hawkins said.
In an telephone interview on March 8, Hawkins said he has looked carefully over the budgets from the past four years. He has looked at what was cut from those budgets, and he has discussed the impacts of those cuts with the school administrators to see what needs to be brought back.
“Let’s take a look at what we really need for our students and begin to build that budget,” Hawkins said. “A budget isn’t something that just comes out of the clear blue sky. You need to take a look at all the issues and possibilities with it, and make decisions accordingly.”
Three more preliminary budget discussions will be held on the following Wednesdays: March 13 at Somerville Elementary School from 6 to 9 p.m., March 20 at the Wiscasset High School Library from 6 to 9 p.m., and March 27 at Windsor Elementary School from 6 to 9 p.m.
For more information on which school or department budgets will be presented at each meeting, visit The Lincoln County News calendar page.
The next meeting of the RSU 12 board of directors will be on Thursday, March 14, at 6:30 p.m. at Chelsea Elementary School.
