Committee cuts another $155,150 from SAD 4 budget

By Mike Lange

Staff Writer

  GUILFORD -- The School Administrative District 4 Budget Committee cut another additional $155,150 from the recommended expenditures for the upcoming year, hoping that voters will find the figures more appealing.

  Superintendent Ann Kirkpatrick said that if all goes as planned, the new budget will be 2.1 percent lower than the one voters rejected on June 9.

  All six towns in the district turned down the $7.27 million spending plan with many voters objecting to a projected 10 to 13 percent increase in the local share of the costs.

  Some reasons for the unusually-high $620,455 request in additional local funds were the drop in enrollment which prompted the state to cut its share of funding. The district population of 623 also includes 110 identified as special needs students.

  The budget committee’s original draft was $140,087 less than the rejected budget, but they cut another $15,063 at the June 24 meeting by eliminating summer school this year. A proposed new high school teaching position was also eliminated from the new budget.

  Kirkpatrick read a letter from the Wellington Board of Selectmen with 15 points they wanted the budget committee to either respond to or consider. Wellington is the smallest community in the six-town district, but would have been subject to one of the largest tax increase under the rejected budget.

  Some of the suggestions included changing the curriculum director’s position from full time to one day per week and the responsibilities of the job be “spread out” among other administrators.

  Kirkpatrick said that Dr. Elaine Bartley, who holds the position, has multiple duties including the administration of federally-funding programs and grants and implementing the proficiency-based standards for future graduation requirements.

  Other suggestions included having the superintendent serve in a dual role as one of the district’s principals. But Kirkpatrick said that according to state standards, “We are already understaffed at the administrative level. And it’s rare that one of us doesn’t put in at least a 55-hour week already.”

   Wellington Selectman Paul Violette said that many town officials felt that the budget increase “at around three times the rate of inflation would have been reasonable, which is about 8 percent. My feeling is that if that figure was implemented, the budget would have passed and we wouldn’t be here doing this tonight.”

  Kirkpatrick also said that the proposed state budget included increases in state aid to local school districts, but said that it’s premature to assume it will survive a possible veto by Gov. Paul LePage and an override by the Maine House and Senate.

   At the superintendent’s suggestion, SAD 4 will also use a more economical budget packet next time, similar to neighboring RSU 68 in Dover-Foxcroft.

  The budget committee will meet once again on Tuesday, July 7 when the final figures from the state should be available. The full board of directors will then meet on July 14 to finalize the budget.

  If all goes as planned, the district budget meeting will then be held on Wednesday, July 22 and the referendum to ratify the budget will take place on July 29 or 30.