School and town officials on the Sheepscot River peninsula concerned about education funding cuts gathered at the Edgecomb Town Hall Tuesday night.
Prompted by an anticipated $38 million in state subsidy cuts for the current year budget throughout the state of Maine, Edgecomb selectmen invited school and town officials from School Union 49 (which serves the towns of Edgecomb, Southport and the Boothbay/Boothbay Harbor Community School District) to discuss current and anticipated cuts in state funding for education.
Selectmen wanted to answer a number of questions, focusing primarily on the upcoming school budget and how cuts would affect area towns. Those school officials present at the Dec. 8 meeting concurred that Edgecomb would suffer the greatest loss.
According to School Union 49 Superintendent Eileen King, these proposed cuts have not been finalized and school boards are working out their individual budget numbers. So far, Edgecomb stands to lose $75,000 from the current year, while Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor combined will lose $86,000. State funding for Southport will be cut $10,000. School officials agreed that these cuts would not adversely affect their budgets, as the loss in state subsidy is minimal compared to their overall costs.
Edgecomb Selectman Jack Sarmanian, in addressing those school officials, asked, “What can we do as a four town school union and district to impact the Dept. of Education and the state government to compensate for their projected cuts which will affect our property owners?”
Those present at the meeting said they were concerned with providing quality education and also realize they have to be cognizant of how their budgets affect taxpayers.
Sarmanian said, to which others agreed, that the school consolidation law forced smaller, rural communities into consolidation. On numerous occasions, school officials have said the law inequitably distributes transportation and cost burdens and subsidy to member towns.
Edgecomb Selectman Stewart Smith said that Union 49 did not join into an Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS) with Union 74 and Jefferson in 2008 because they would lose more money than if they stayed as they are now. Jefferson gets nearly 50 percent of the stimulus funding in the Central Lincoln County AOS 93 budget, while the other towns in the AOS share the remainder of funding, Smith said. While Union 49 schools are united together by way of one superintendent, they are all independent bodies.
Edgecomb will lose more state funding, because they get more, according to school board members. King said the Essential Programs and Services (ESP) model, which is what the state uses to establish the amount of subsidy schools get, is determined by student population and town land valuation. Southport is different than the other member schools in Union 49, as its state revenue is calculated by the amount of money spent on special education, King said.
She said that while the school boards are still working through the budget numbers, they have talked about building “carry forward” amounts from unspent revenue in anticipation of funding curtailments.
“We are always looking for ways to save money,” Stephen Ward, chairman of the Edgecomb School Committee said, adding, “The problem isn’t on this peninsula. The problem is upriver.”
Again, Sarmanian asked those present what could be done as more cuts in funding from the state come into play.
“When you do have to make significant cuts, it’s school programs and staffing,” King said, also mentioning that elementary grades suffer a lot of the losses from funding cuts, due to the fact that secondary tuition costs are stable.
Some present at the meeting noted the disparities between not only what each district gets in terms of funding, but also the cuts that are made affecting the younger students.
The Edgecomb selectmen said they wanted to know how they would pay for even the simplest repairs, such leaky windows in the town office, especially since the only large portion of revenue to the town comes from property taxes.
Since the other large bill to taxpayers is the cost of education, selectmen wondered how schools are weathering the storm. The implication is that taxpayers might see an education budget and ask for further cuts, not knowing that schools are, in many instances throughout the state, facing the choice of having to cut programs and/or staffing.
Sarmanian suggested selectmen and school officials in member towns keep in mind the possibility for future grant and other funding opportunities. He suggested there might be other opportunities considering the configuration of towns and schools in the area.
Those at the meeting generally agreed they could work together in future discussions on these issues. As Ward said, the problems facing the entire state would not be solved by this group at the Edgecomb Town Hall, but, he acknowledged, their meeting could act as a catalyst for changes in the future.
