Regional School Unit 14 Superintendent Sandy Prince has proposed a budget that would increase school district spending next year by $1,902,200, or about 4.63 percent.
According to Prince, the proposed increase, which would be the highest in the history of the consolidated school district, is primarily driven by rising fixed costs for labor, electricity and insurance, as well as a mix of staff hiring and work time increases.
Since consolidation, the school budget has increased an average of 1.48 percent annually. This year’s 3.52 percent budget increases, a $1.4 million increase in spending, was the biggest approved increase since consolidation in 2008. The budget decreased during the first two years of district consolidation, but has steadily grown since, increasing by 2.75 percent in fiscal year 2012, 2.63 percent in fiscal year 2013, and 1.87 percent in fiscal year 2014.
Prince said he had not calculated the proposed budget’s impact on property taxes in Windham and Raymond.
Since the recession, class sizes have increased as the district has cut the equivalent of 71 staff positions, according to Prince. In order to reverse the trend of growing class sizes, Prince’s budget recommends $440,289 in new spending in order to add the equivalent of nearly seven staff positions. The new spending on staff constitutes about 23 percent of the proposed budget increase.
The spending calls for hiring new full-time instructors and increases working hours across the district. New or restored positions would include a district-wide technology integrator, a social worker, high school volleyball and swim coaches, and two full-time teachers at Windham Middle School. Teacher working hours would be increased at Jordan-Small Middle School and Windham High School, as well.
“I think we’re pretty bare bones and we’re very concerned that the number of reductions over the years has really made it challenging for us to provide some of the services that we wanted to have,” Prince said. “This is allowing us to meet the guidelines that we have in policy to make sure that our class sizes are reasonable.”
Meanwhile, spending on rising fixed costs would constitute about $981,535, or 52 percent of the new spending.
“The budget increase is at 2.39 percent just to open the doors,” Prince said. “We give raises, and electricity and insurance goes up.”
Other factors driving the increase include continuing mandates from the Maine Legislature. Nearly half of this year’s budget increase, or $637,000, came as a result of new state laws requiring that the district fund a portion of charter school tuitions for students in the district and an increasing share of teacher retirement costs, according to Prince.
Charter tuition costs are expected to continue rising. While the charter school tuition budget increased school spending $130,522 in this fiscal year, Prince projects the charter budget will increase an additional $124,000 the next fiscal year.
The RSU 14 school board will hear presentations from department heads and school principals on Wednesday, March 25, at 6:30 p.m. at the Windham High School auditorium and on Saturday, March 28, at 8 a.m. at the Raymond Elementary School gym. School board members said they needed more time to digest the proposed budget before offering their reactions.
“We’ll have to now go over each cost center to see what they’re proposing,” said board co-chairwoman Diana Froisland, of Raymond.
Co-chairwoman Marge Govoni said she planned to examine the reasoning driving the rest of the increase – beyond the rising fixed costs.
“We know there is a normal increase every year of over $1 million and that’s all salary increases and benefits and stuff,” Govoni said. “We just have to really have a chance to get into the meat of what we’re looking at.”
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