Palermo School will keep its $6000 eighth grade class trip.
In assuring that the revised proposed budget includes the expense, Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12 directors cleared a hurdle – equity in the eight towns – that will bedevil the RSU in weeks to come.
Supt. Greg Potter said, “In the future we’re going to have to look at these equity issues. They’re everywhere.”
The RSU plan’s statement of intent includes a provision for “equity and fairness for its member towns.”
Potter’s comment was in response to Somerville director Chris Johnson’s observation that students in other towns raise such money themselves. “It doesn’t seem right to include $6000 for one town,” he said.
Palermo representative Blake Brown said the students match the money through fundraising.
In deliberations a month ago seeking reductions, the finance committee deleted the trip. Brown said at Thursday’s meeting, where budget adjustments were approved, that Palermo has voted extra money into its budget since the mid-1970s so that 8th graders can visit Washington DC, New York City, or Boston. He reminded the board that such trips are valuable in showing students “the diversity of people. We do live in a very diverse society.”
Blake also said that when regional school units were formed, “communities were to have the right to raise money above what the budget says.” He felt responsible for retaining the trip because he guaranteed town officials last March that it would be included in the school budget and that the town therefore didn’t need to vote the money. Local taxes were committed based on the expense.
To the inequity argument, Blake pointed out that the proposed RSU 12 budget allows another town in the unit to add a volunteer coordinator position. Stressing that it’s important for communities to “maintain their individuality” in the larger district they now belong to, he said, “Palermo sees itself as losing stuff.”
Compared to Somerville with an enrollment of 39 students, Palermo has 144. Whitefield has 185, Chelsea 244, Windsor 271, Wiscasset Primary School 200, Wiscasset Middle School and High School, 200 and 215 respectively.
Arguments for retaining the Palermo trip were persuasive and the 13 members present then voted to adopt the committee’s adjusted budget with the assurance that money would be found to pay the trip cost. The total adjusted budget is now $26,492,446 (down from $26,613,497 rejected by voters in July) and the part subject to local funding is $14,446,849, down by $346,000.
Since the previous meeting, the finance committee made additional adjustments in staff salaries. Instead of $50,000 in reductions, they trimmed $85,000.
Finance committee chair F. Gerard Nault said the panel is being conservative in its recommended reductions because the RSU faces potential loss of state subsidy beginning Jan. 1. “To go to the bone now means you’d have to look at program cuts later,” he said.
On that theme, Supt. Potter cautioned about “being too aggressive now” by making further cuts in supplies and other items.
Between teacher payments and an unanticipated amount of other 2009 miscellaneous expenses in the eight former school units, Nault said it was necessary to borrow $400,000 in addition to the $2 million it borrowed from First National Bank of Damariscotta for fiscal year 2009-10 startup costs beginning July 1.
The board voted to establish a volunteer wellness advisory committee, as required by law. The intent is to identify what needs to be changed in the school environment to create healthy learning conditions for students. The committee, whose members will include one RSU member, a nurse, and other volunteers, recommends to the superintendent improvements that need to be made.
Potter reported that Governor Baldacci declared a civil state of emergency concerning the H1N1 virus. Seasonal flu vaccinations will be available soon and H1N1 (“swine flu”) will be offered when available, “not before November,” the superintendent said. RSU 12 has partnered with Wiscasset Family Medicine and a schedule is being developed, Potter said. RSU 12 has four nurses certified to administer the vaccine. The state has underwritten liability for the inoculations.
A majority of voters rejected earlier proposed budgets in June and July.
