Towns’ shares of SAD 4 budget could increase as much as 23 percent

    PARKMAN, Maine — A group of officials from the six member towns of School Administrative District 4 met last week to discuss how the projected increase in the local share of the $7.45 million budget will affect their communities.
    The meeting was called at the suggestion of Abbot Selectman Mickey Knowles and Wellington Selectman Paul Violette, who described the figures as “unrealistic” and “unacceptable.”

    While the overall SAD 4 budget is up only 1.23 percent, the estimated increases in the local share of costs ranges from 14 percent in Cambridge to 23 percent in Abbot.
    One of the major reasons for the hike is the loss of about 70 students in the district during the last year, dropping the school population to 618. “Until this year, the state’s share of our budget was 50 percent,” said SAD 4 Superintendent Ann Kirkpatrick. “Now, they’re only paying 47 percent.”
    Kirkpatrick said that she shares the concerns of the town officials. “I don’t blame them at all. The state is giving us $211,000 less than last year. But to receive it, we need to raise $139,000 more,” Kirkpatrick said. “So to get to our level of funding from last year, we need to raise $350,000 more dollars locally. This is a 10 percent increase to the taxpayers before the budget process even began.”
    But Violette, Knowles and others say that there are still unanswered questions in the new budget that they hope to resolve at the May 12 SAD 4 Board of Directors’ meeting.
    Violette questioned why $160,000 in unanticipated revenue couldn’t be credited to the new budget. “As I understand it, it’s the same as an overlay that we have in our (municipal) budgets,” Violette said.
    The Wellington selectman said that his town “built a 7 percent increase in the school budget in our (town meeting) warrant. If that was the case, the town would probably say we can live with it. But 16 percent is not tenable. And for some of you, it’s up 20 percent.”
    Some of the attendees questioned whether the school was overstaffed and why a decrease in the transportation contract wasn’t reflected in the budget.
    Guilford Town Manager Tom Goulette said that one reason for the decrease in the school population could be due to a change in the law governing student transfers. “In the old days, we had what was known as a superintendents’ agreement where you really had to have a good case to transfer,” he said. “Today, the parents and student determine what’s best for their education and they can go anywhere they want to.”
    Goulette said, however, that there are only so many areas of the budget that can be cut within reason. “Can you cut sports? Can you cut the band? Sure, but there’s going to be a bloodbath over it,” he said.
 “There’s no doubt in my mind that there are thousands of dollars in this budget – low-hanging fruit – that could be cut without having any impact on the education of our kids,” said Knowles.
    Kirkpatrick said, however, that 80 to 85 percent of an average school budget is for personnel costs. “We aren’t overstaffed,” she said. “And we do have contract obligations.”
    Following last week’s Tri-County Technical Center Regional Board meeting, Kirkpatrick said that she was able to trim another $15,000 from the budget.
Kirkpatrick said that unlike municipalities, school districts are discouraged from carrying undesignated fund balances forward. “It’s like taking a loan out against yourself, and the auditors strongly recommend against it,” she said. “It’s not really secured money.”
    The superintendent also said that the legislature hasn’t set its funding level for education yet, so the budget figures are “worst-case scenario. We probably won’t get the final figures until just before they adjourn in June.”
    Violette is drafting a letter to the superintendent this week, outlining the group’s concerns and noting that the increase in local share of the SAD 4 budget outpaced inflation by a considerable amount.
    “Something needs to be done,” Knowles said. “I think if the general public knew about these figures, they’d raise hell over it.”