Local school departments will soon begin dealing with the consequences of a state spending curtailment that includes $12.5 million worth of school subsidy cuts.
Windham-Raymond schools were hit with a $198,891 cut in state aid, while Bonny Eagle lost $287,466 and Lake Region $114,558.
The curtailment order, made Dec. 27 by Gov. Paul LePage, includes a total of $35.5 million in state spending cuts to ensure the state budget stays balanced in this fiscal year. Health and human services spending was also cut, by $13.4 million.
In Windham-Raymond’s Regional School Unit 14, Assistant Superintendent Donn Davis said Wednesday the $198,891 was a sort of a Christmastime “bah-humbug” moment for school officials. However, it didn’t come as a shock to either Davis or Superintendent Sandy Prince. He said the finance committee of the School Board would soon meet to hammer out a way to trim the budget.
“Sandy and I have been in often and recent discussions about what we can do to mitigate the problem, so it’s not new news as we read the tea leaves much earlier and we’ve been somewhat prepared,” Davis said. “We have some ideas, but we will be looking to meet with our finance committee as soon as we can.”
The district’s total budget is $38.2 million for 2012-2013. The state’s share of the budget is $14.22 million, which is now reduced to $14.02 million thanks to the subsidy cut. Prior to Windham and Raymond’s consolidation in 2008, a midyear curtailment affected the two school departments more significantly, Davis said, with the cut totaling $635,000 for the two school systems.
Davis said the news, though less dire than in the past, has resulted in an immediate spending freeze at Windham-Raymond schools. Hiring of non-essential personnel will be put on hold as will discretionary spending at all levels, he said.
“We are putting on that hard spending freeze, which does a couple of things,” Davis said. “If goods or supplies aren’t essential to continuing our programming, then they won’t be approved for purchase. And likewise, job vacancies that may become available and that are essential to our continued operation will be allowed [to be filled] but otherwise they wouldn’t be.”
Davis expects school officials to have a plan in place by the end of next week. The money to continue programming as budgeted could come from the district’s contingency fund if there is no appetite on the board to make cuts.
Finance committee chairman Toby Pennels said he expects the meeting to discuss cutting strategies next week. When asked where the board may start, Pennels said: “At this juncture I have no idea which cost center or cost centers might be affected, so I can’t comment on that specifically. I can tell you that while the news of this curtailment was unexpected, it is not new territory for the board. In the end, the finance committee will propose recommendations to the board on adjustments to cost centers, with the board having final approval authority.”
The state is cutting $287,466 from its subsidy to School Administrative District 6. The Bonny Eagle school district’s total budget for 2012-2013 is $40.5 million. State subsidy, with the curtailment, is $20.17 million.
Superintendent Frank Sherburne was expecting the mid-year curtailment and had been preparing for it during the fall with the district’s business manager, Bill Brockman. The two had identified about $450,000 worth of expenditures that could have been cut, so the $287,000 cut fits within that contingency plan.
“In August, we were hearing some rumors from Augusta that they were probably going to be doing a curtailment this year because of revenue projections,” Sherburne said. “So Bill and I sat down and went line by line and created a budget reserve, and where we thought we might be able to shave a little money we did. So we were able to set some money aside in that way if this were to happen.”
While Sherburne said his cuts need to be approved by the school board, he said the district is in good shape to handle the curtailment, the first one to be issued by the state in four years, he said. But he added that if he hadn’t been diligent to spend conservatively early in the fiscal year, the curtailment would be a harder pill to swallow.
“We set aside some funds and the plan was that if no curtailment plan had been discussed, we would start releasing that money again,” Sherburne said. “So we just postponed some purchases. We asked the building principals to scale back a little bit, as well. But with the curtailment, we’re not going to be releasing those funds because we’re going to need those to make up for the loss in the state aid.”
Sherburne said the whole process of curtailments, which he said disrupt a school system in the middle of the year, could be avoided if state officials were more conservative in projecting tax revenue. He said next year, the state is already figuring that tax revenue will be up, a likelihood that he doubts will take place and which actually creates more confusion and frustration this year, he said.
“So not only are we going to be back where we were this year but they’re projecting we’re actually going to see a $250,000 increase [in state subsidy] next year. I’m not planning for that. I don’t know why the state feels we’re going to have money next year that they’re taking away from us this year,” Sherburne said. “I don’t know who does their forecasting, but I don’t have a great deal of confidence in it. It seems like every year in August, Augusta says, ‘Oh, brace yourselves, there’s probably going to be a curtailment.’ There’s got to be a better way of forecasting.”
School Administrative District 61, which covers the towns of Naples, Bridgton, Sebago and Casco, is also seeing a budget curtailment. The state is reducing its aid by $114,558, to $1.6 million. The district, which has a $23 million school budget, is already a minimum receiver since the state considers the waterfront property-rich area a wealthy district.
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