Residents from the eight communities of Sheepscot Valley Regional Union 12 (Alna, Wiscasset, Westport Island, Palermo, Somerville, Whitefield, Windsor, and Chelsea) gave preliminary approval June 4 to the fiscal 2012 budget at a meeting at the Windsor School.
The $25,130,772 spending plan still faces final approval from district residents in a budget validation referendum Tues., June 14 in each community.
After a presentation by RSU 12 Supt. Greg Potter kicked off the meeting, voters showed overwhelming support for the 17 warrant articles. Article 15, which summarized the proposed school budget, passed by a 62-0 margin.
“I’m very encouraged by the level of support,” Potter said June 6. “We are looking at a negligible mil rate impact locally.”
The meeting was conducted in a town hall style manner with residents holding up pieces of paper to show support for the articles presented.
Article 14, to see what sum the RSU will raise and appropriate in additional local funds which exceeds the state’s Essential Programs and Services allocation model, was decided by written ballot. The article was overwhelmingly approved by a 60-2 margin.
During the question and answer portion of the meeting, Potter responded to a Windsor resident who asked why teaching positions were being cut while the administrative staff was possibly seeking an additional employee.
“I see from the budget that the budget for administrative staff was cut by 25 percent. What’s stopping you from going higher than that?” said the woman. “As a parent, I see teachers losing their jobs. This concerns me. The RSU system was created to ensure that our kids get a good education not so the superintendent’s office had enough people to do the job.”
In response, Potter spoke of the need for “shared sacrifice” within the district and said the budget committee used a certain measure of creativity in their thought process.
“I wish I could say in the future things would get better but I’m not sure they will,” said Potter. “We could be an RSU with a 20-to-1 student to teacher ratio, that’s a real possibility. Thankfully it’s not for next year.”
Budget committee member Richard DeVries of Westport Island said because of the increased demand for data requirement from the state, the administrative staff would actually need an additional employee in the future. The woman, frustrated by DeVries’ answer, said the type of logic he was employing “was the kind of attitude that bothers those of us with kids.”
“This doesn’t pass the straight face test,” said the woman who did not give her name. “Stop putting kids behind data collection.”
The significant reductions proposed include 3.9 full-time employee regular classroom teaching positions; 1.0 for Windsor, 1.0 Somerville, .5 for Wiscasset Middle School, 1.0 Wiscasset High School, and .4 for speech services. Other cuts include two full-time education tech positions from Whitefield and Windsor, respectively.
Potter identified significant increases as health insurance premiums, capital improvement projects, and two new buses and one new van.
Despite only a slight increase in the RSU 12 budget, both Palermo and Somerville will experience an increase in their mil rate in order to meet the states required contribution under the existing cost sharing formula.
“We hope voters will approve this,” said Potter in comments after the meeting. “This will let us focus on the job of education and not budgets.”
The RSU 12 budget validation referendum vote will take place on June 14 with polls open in Wiscasset from 8 a.m to 8 p.m at the Wiscasset Community Center and Alna from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the town office. Somerville, Westport Island and Whitefield voters are urged to call their town offices for polling times and locations.
