A letter to SAD 4 residents

To the Editor;

I am writing as a concerned parent of two students attending SAD 4. They have been fortunate to have highly qualified teachers and many educational opportunities in our local schools, and I urge all our residents to vote “Yes” on the proposed budget June 14th.

I have come to see the current budget as the best option for our students, as well as for our taxpayers. For months I attended Budget Committee meetings and urged its members to consider cuts in areas not directly impacting the classroom. Instead, I questioned if a district our size needed a curriculum coordinator. I believe that dedicated staff working directly with students will achieve the best results; I did not feel that a district as small as ours could afford a curriculum coordinator. I also questioned the wisdom of a 2 percent raise after last year’s budget difficulties. My concerns had little impact, and the Budget Committee unanimously passed the recommended budget, which the School Board also passed on May 9th.

However, at the the May 26th public meeting, voters seemed to share my sentiments. Additional money was added to the Regular Education Cost Center; its intent was to restore two PCSS positions in Health and PE back to to full-time for the fall of 2016. The voters were supporting dedicated faculty who work directly with our kids. The two educators impacted by that budget cut are also coaches, and their loss would be felt by soccer players, basketball teams, and all track athletes.

Despite this vote, the district will still lose the equivalent of a full-time teacher to budget cuts; Foreign Language has been cut to half-time, and the Alternative Ed program, Learning-4-Life will also be half-time.

At that same public meeting, voters cut money from the cost centers that covered the curriculum coordinator and system administration. The end result is a reduced tax increase to the towns, yet a priority established to protect staff who work directly with our students. Those were exactly the reasons I attended so many meetings this spring, so I will vote for this budget, and I urge others to support it as well.

Please contact your school board members and the superintendent to encourage how these dollar amounts are spent in each cost center. Your communication and presence will be vital to see this funding spent as voters have expressed.

We still have a lot of work to do as a district. Our long-serving board members have been challenged in recent years to fill every admin position, as well as two guidance positions. Currently, we have not had a Special Education Director for the past year. Our current admin team did the extra work and covered that vacancy; in a better budget climate they may deserve the 2 percent raise that was apparently voted down on May 26th.

In the current budget crisis, they have already proven the district could operate with one less administrator. Urge your board members to move forward with the new numbers that voters gave us; perhaps the current Curriculum Coordinator could fill the long-vacant Special Education position? Could the Curriculum Coordinator’s duties of overseeing the many standardized tests be covered with a less-expensive, stipended position? With only 600 students, could we reduce our Superintendent to part-time? Proposals to share that position with SAD 68 would have created that exact situation.

While I do not want to lose good administrators in this budget cycle, I do see similar budget struggles in our future due to declining enrollment, and the tough decisions begin now. The public vote on May 26th started to do that difficult work, and we should all support it with our votes on June 14th.

Sue Griffith
Parkman