A district budget totaling $22,056,614 passed with little controversy as 94 citizens from the RSU 40/MSAD 40 towns of Friendship, Union, Waldoboro, Warren and Washington acted on the warrant for fiscal year 2012-13, May 29 at Medomak Valley High School.
After electing John Black of Waldoboro as moderator, voters moved quickly through the budget articles, with most questions relating to the movement of some items among the budget lines.
Questions arose early in regard to the $763,040 expenditure for career and technical education.
Those funds are paid to the Midcoast School of Technology/Region 8 Education Service Center in Rockland that serves high school students from Camden Hills Regional High School, Islesboro Central School, Lincoln Academy, MVHS, North Haven Community School, Oceanside East, Oceanside West and the Vinalhaven School.
After board members voted against the article, Waldoboro resident Ronald Dolloff asked why. In later discussion, board Vice Chairman Danny Jackson, of Waldoboro, said the Region 8 board’s budget included raises of 6 percent or more for many positions.
“I felt that was out of line,” Jackson said.
Chairwoman Bonnie Davis-Micue said the RSU has no authority over the Region 8 budget. Four members of the RSU 40/MSAD 40 board of directors sit on the 16-member Region 8 board.
Superintendent Susan Pratt said she received a legal opinion from the RSU’s attorney and that the annually renewed cooperative agreement between the two districts mandates payment of the RSU’s share of Region 8 costs. If voters rejected the budget article, they would be required by state law to hold another meeting to approve the funds, she said.
In response to a question from Bob Carter, of Warren, Pratt said she had been looking into options other than participation in Region 8, and that such a change would require the legislature to make a statutory change.
RSU 40/MSAD 40 voters approved the Region 8 budget by a vote of 48-23.
George Keyes of Waldoboro asked what costs were covered in Article 5, for student and staff support, to justify an increase of almost $150,000 from the previous budget.
Pratt said this figure included guidance, health, technology and library services. She said the district planned to take advantage of an opportunity to purchase laptop computers from the laptop program as newer ones are introduced.
The older computers, purchase for $50 each, would be used to expand the district’s laptop access to elementary grades. Article 5 monies also support teacher training for new assessment tools. Pratt said a new set of standards, called common core state standards, would be used beginning in 2014.
“Teachers will need to learn those standards,” Pratt said. She said that would be accomplished during the summer so that time would not be taken from instruction.
A $180,000 increase in the line for system administration was explained as being due to a shift in where expenditures for the director of technology – previously included in the instruction line – and central office have been located in the budget.
Earlier budgets placed the latter item under the umbrella of the Union school, Pratt said. She also included $50,000 in contingency funds under Article 6.
“For me, managing a $22 million budget, having a $50,000 contingency is realistic,” she said.
Addressing Article 9, facilities maintenance, Business Manager and Director of Facilities and Maintenance R. Scott Wyman said his department was working on a five-year model for long-term planning.
One of the longest discussions took place after John Higgins, of Waldoboro, made a motion to amend Article 12 and cut the adult education budget by approximately 30 percent, from $99,130 with a district share of $45,000, to $41,080 with a local share of $25,000.
“This program has been losing money and now you want to take more,” Higgins said. He said adults could pay higher fees for the courses they take. “No business runs by losing money,” he said.
Higgins called for a vote on his amendment by written ballot.
In discussion, Pratt said most of the adult education budget is paid by the state and that reimbursements would grow as the total amount increased.
Last year 914 adults, aged 16 and older, were served by adult education programs at RSU 40/MSAD 40.
Pratt said this included students seeking high school equivalency diplomas, or GEDs. She said all public school systems are called on to pay part of adult education costs.
Breaking down last year’s adult education budget, Pratt said $26,000 came from grants and $18,900 from the state, with $25,000 being paid through local taxation.
Higgins said he proposed the amendment in order to “force the district to live within a budget.” The amendment failed by a vote of 20-70. In the subsequent vote on Article 12, the adult education line passed with only six voting in opposition.
Article 15 called on the district to raise and appropriate $895,689 in additional local funds. This is $460,970 more than required under the state’s essential programs and services allocation model.
“We have five towns,” said Davis-Micue. “Each has an elementary school in it. We, as a board, believe it is necessary to the lifeblood of our communities to have an elementary school in each of our towns.”
Acknowledging that it would be less expensive to move all elementary students to the schools in Warren and Waldoboro, she said it remained a priority to keep all five elementary schools open.
Pratt said the state’s formula is based on having 350-450 students in an elementary school and that only one school in the district had that population.
“It costs more money to run more buildings,” Pratt said.
The result of a mandatory written ballot was to approve Article 15 by a vote of 79-5.
The state has assigned a mil rate cap of 7.69 for RSU 40/MSAD 40. The assessment for Waldoboro is $4,542,522 or approximately 36 percent of the overall district assessment.
This amount includes an increase of $152,738 for Essential Programs and Services (EPS).
In RSU 40/MSAD 40, assessments are based 50 percent on student valuation and 50 percent on property evaluation in the town for which that assessment has been calculated.
Waldoboro sends 675 students to district schools, or 37 percent of the district student population. The town’s valuation of $509,850 comprises 36 percent of the total for the district’s five towns.
The next meeting of the RSU 40/MSAD 40 Board of Directors is Thurs., June 7 at 7 p.m. at Medomak Middle School in Waldoboro. For more information call the district’s administrative office at 785-2277.
