Trust and transparency were the primary reasons behind the RSU 12 Board of Directors’ decision to not vote on a finance committee recommendation regarding additional state subsidy received by the school district.
The board unanimously voted Thursday, Aug. 13 to wait until each select board in RSU 12’s seven-town district has been contacted regarding the additional state subsidy before taking formal action. The decision to wait until towns were contacted was initiated by concerns raised by Palermo board members.
Palermo was one of the towns that attempted to withdraw from RSU 12 – an initiative that was defeated in the November 2014 election.
No one felt there would be any pushback to the finance committee’s recommendation to hold the additional state subsidy for each town in an escrow account and apply it as a credit to the towns’ local contributions in 2016-2017.
However, for the sake of open communication and transparency, board members requested each municipality be contacted and given the opportunity to weigh in on the recommendation first.
Due to a narrowly passed $25 million addition to general purpose aid for K-12 education in the Legislature, school districts across the state have seen an increase to their state subsidy. The additional state subsidy came after school budgets were already approved by voters.
The Maine Department of Education advised school districts the additional subsidy could be used to lower the local contributions of municipalities in their district without going through the budget approval process. The legal advice of school districts’ counsels, however, differed.
RSU 12 was advised they would have to go through another budget meeting and district-wide referendum vote to have the revised budget approved – a process that would have cost approximately $6,000, Superintendent Howard Tuttle said.
RSU 12’s finance committee recommended applying the additional $205,404.17 in subsidy to the general fund carry-over, but treating those funds as committed and creating an escrow account to track the credit for each municipality. The credit would be applied to lower the municipalities’ local contributions in the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
The committee would track the credit for each municipality each month in the finance committee’s meeting minutes.
The credit for each municipality was determined based on each community’s reduced mil rate for education created by the increased subsidy. If the finance committee’s recommendation is approved, Alna will be credited $19,654.17 in 2016-2017. Somerville will be credited $13,345.83. Whitefield will be credited $46,108.33.
Chelsea will be credited $37,779.17. Palermo will be credited $44,312.50. Windsor will be credited $44,204.17.
Westport Island would see no change in its local contribution due to the increased subsidy.
The board plans to vote on the finance committee’s recommendation in September.
In other business, RSU 12 is preparing to open three new pre-kindergarten classrooms at the start of the school year in Chelsea, Somerville, and Whitefield.
Chelsea’s pre-kindergarten program is already full, however, spaces are still available in Whitefield and Somerville. RSU 12’s program includes busing for students. RSU 12 is prepared to bus pre-kindergarten students from Alna to Whitefield if there is a demand for it, Tuttle said.
Wiscasset is also launching a new pre-kindergarten program. Students in RSU 12 would have to pay tuition to attend the program, unless a superintendents’ agreement is reached between RSU 12 and Wiscasset, Tuttle said.
There has been no formal inquiry from the Wiscasset School Department to create a superintendents’ agreement regarding pre-K, Tuttle said.
(Editor’s note: The reported local contribution credits in this article differ from the numbers reported in the Aug. 12 print edition. The initial figures were run through RSU 12’s cost-sharing formula, however, the additional subsidy was applied based strictly on the reduced mil rate.)