South Portland’s Board of Education unanimously approved a school budget that will allow the city’s two middle schools to keep a guidance counselor position and a resource officer position that would have been cut in the superintendent’s proposed budget.
Within their total FY2006 school budget of $38.9 million, the board was able to save $136,150 by using already available maintenance reserves to pay for maintenance work requested by Superintendent Wendy Houlihan.
That money was reallocated to fund some items that were not previously included and still allow the school budget to stay under the City Council’s budget guidance of a 2.58 percent cap on spending increases.
Because of dropping enrollments at Memorial and Mahoney middle schools, Houlihan’s initial budget proposed the two middle schools share one resource officer, when before each school had their own, and the transfer of one middle school guidance counselor to an elementary school position, leaving three counselors to cover both middle schools. After rearranging the budget the board decided that it was important to them, despite the dropping enrollments, to restore these positions to the middle schools.
“Those ages are so tough … we felt strongly that we wanted to look past the mathematics,” said board Chairman Mark Reuscher.
Besides restoring the two middle school positions the board also included $9,000 for the membership fee to join the Casco Bay Education Alliance, a collection of area schools that already includes Falmouth, Yarmouth, Cumberland-North Yarmouth, Pownal and Freeport. Cape Elizabeth has also included funds in their newly adopted school budget to join the group. The alliance is designed to offer opportunities for school administrators, teachers, and even school board members to come together and share best practices across district lines.
Houlihan said she was delighted that the board was able to find a way to restore the middle school positions and to include membership in the Casco Bay Alliance after rearranging the budget.
The Board of Education also adopted unanimously Houlihan’s proposed redistricting plan to shut Mary Marsh Elementary School and transfer 122 students to Skillin Elementary, 45 students in the K-5 ESL program to Brown Elementary and 75 students who live on designated streets to Kaler Elementary.
Reuscher said the board listened to concerned citizens, but they felt this plan was in the best interest of the students and the community. Marsh Elementary was slated to undergo renovations, as have the five other South Portland elementary schools, but that dropping enrollment prompted administration to consider Marsh’s closure.
“No matter what elementary school a student goes to, they’re all new … there aren’t many places that can say that,” Reuscher said.
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