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Wiscasset School Board members Sharon Nichols and Eugene Stover try to convince fellow school board members to support creating a budget which reflects the closure of one school. (Kathy Onorato photo) |
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By Kathy Onorato
The Wiscasset School Board began filtering through a $10 million preliminary budget, which includes a $7.8 million price tag for labor, Superintendent Wayne Dorr told the board Feb. 20.
The budget presented to the board represents a budget for operating all three Wiscasset schools next year. Dorr stressed the budget is a very rough draft. Budget workshops are planned for Feb. 27, March 4 and March 11.
He said the budget contains some inaccuracies and oversights which he and administrators will be sifting through over the coming weeks. Dorr said he has already noticed nearly $160,000 in likely reductions.
However, Dorr said the potential labor costs are accurate. Referring to the preliminary budget, school board member Steve Smith said, “I don’t want to pay that. I will move first.”
Board member Eugene Stover has advocated the board should compare two budgets, one for operating all three schools and another showing the difference with operating only two schools. The suggestion has met opposition with other board members who have expressed concern of putting additional work on the superintendent. The majority of the board prefers to work from one budget.
Stover said it would be good to have a back-up plan if voters were to reject the budget for all three schools. “Why not see if the savings is worth it? It will be proved by the numbers,” he said.
Reading from a prepared a statement, board member Sharon Nichols told fellow board members closing one school could provide considerable savings to the taxpayer as well as enhancing educational opportunities.
Quoting data from the Maine Department of Education’s website, Nichols said the current cost of educating a Wiscasset High School student is $14,732, against a state average of $8,872. Nichols also told the board the student enrollment in Wiscasset has declined from its high of 1405 students to a current enrollment of 579.
She said adding two grades at the Wiscasset Primary School would help some students benefit from peer mentoring. Students would also have opportunity to take advantage of higher course offerings as well getting additional help where needed.
Nichols predicted high school enrollment would increase because seventh and eighth grades would be already in the high school building where they will have established relationships with teachers and students.
According to Nichols, Wiscasset teachers are already sharing their time between the three schools, and consolidation would make those teachers more available to students and parents.
“The school board is equally responsible to taxpayers as they are to our children to provide a quality education at a fair and equitable cost to taxpayers,” Nichols said, reading from her prepared statement. “The citizens of Wiscasset overwhelmingly voted to withdraw due to the increased and uncontrollable costs of being in an RSU with the budget controlled by seven other towns.”
“That’s a matter of opinion,” School board Chairman Glenn Craig told Nichols.
“We can’t say what the voters wanted,” said Steve Smith.
Stover made a motion for the board to authorize the superintendent to prepare the second budget for comparison; Nichols seconded and supported the motion, but the motion failed with Smith, Craig and Colleen Smith all voting in opposition. Stover said he wanted to make sure the vote was on the record.
Craig said it was important for the town to create a vision on what it would like in its educational system. “Do we want to grow our system, creating growth? By consolidating we are constricting our system,” said Craig.
The board’s responsibility is to present a budget which is in the best interest of the town and the children of Wiscasset, who don’t have a vote in the process, Craig said.
Craig said his five-year vision for Wiscasset includes having all three schools remain open.
“We stand for the children, not for taxpayers,” Craig said.
Although closing a school is certainly a possibility, it is not a simple matter, Dorr said. As far as preparing another budget to consider, he said he just doesn’t have the time to do it. “I cannot do anymore than I am doing,” he said. “I have a very, very busy schedule.”
Dorr said the board could extract information from the preliminary budget to get the estimated savings of closing a school.
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Tony True, a former Wiscasset school board member, would like to see a town-wide referendum on consolidating schools. (Kathy Onorato photo) |
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During the public comment section of the meeting a former school board member, Tony True, suggested the board spend some of its start-up money to ask the residents of Wiscasset what they want through a special referendum. “See if they want to close down a school,” he said.
True told the board it was their duty to do what the majority of the people wanted. Smith said he supported the idea.
If the town doesn’t seek the public’s input on the issue via a town-wide referendum, True said he will start a petition with his own idea, to close both the primary and middle schools and use the high school as a K-8 school.
“We would have the best K-8 school in the state,” True said.
True said the town could tuition high school students giving them the opportunity to go wherever they choose. “School choice would create a competition, which would be good for the kids,” he said.
True said his plan would save a considerable amount of money.
“One way or another you will have to deal with the issue,” True said.
