The proposed spending plan contains several position cuts in an attempt to balance educational needs with declining revenue and student enrollment.
Approved was a $33,394,830.16 budget — $816,753 less than the 2011-12 budget.
“The bottom line is, we continue to face declining enrollment and declining revenues, and thus we see the inability of the district to maintain the kinds of programs that we once were able to,” Superintendent Brad Smith said in an overview for the board. “So for the purpose of budgeting, we have come up with a budget that would ask for the first time in four years, an increase to the local contribution from the four communities” that make up SAD 75.
Those towns are Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Harpswell and Topsham.
The school district projects to receive $356,865 less in state subsidy for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The total local contribution, even with the overall budget decrease, will increase by $98,069 if the proposed spending plan wins approval in a June 12 districtwide referendum.
With an overall revenue decrease of $816,753, “it is just impossible for us to maintain the programs and the personnel we have in the past with that,” Smith said.
Accounting for decreases in revenue, increased costs and any anticipated savings, Smith said, “the difference between what it would cost to keep all the programs and what we expect to get, is a difference of $1,128,029. That’s what we had to cut.”
“It comes down to reductions in staff,” Smith said. “It comes down to reduction in the ability of departments and schools to purchase all of the things they have in the past.”
Reductions across the district include a loss of 9.3 teaching positions, 3.6 professional staff positions and the equivalent of 11.5 support staff, as well as an assistant football coach.
“That’s a lot of people,” Smith said. “Those have been very difficult decisions, and there’s no question we will feel the impact of that in our ability to continue to provide the quality programs and services we desire to.”
Steve Dyer, SAD 75’s business manager, announced a projected health insurance premium increase came in at 4 percent rather than 6.5 percent as budgeted, saving $80,000 from the local share.
Under this budget, Bowdoin will see an increase in its local contribution of $124,956 (5.98 percent); Bowdoinham of $104,038 (4.45 percent); and Harpswell of $ 150,026 (2.31 percent). Topsham will see a decrease in its local contribution of $280,950, or 3.6 percent.
Most discussion about the budget by board members focused on a 0.4 nurse position at the middle school to be cut, leaving one full-time nurse at the school.
Board member Dorothy Gardner said of the budget, “Overall, job well done, but I am disappointed with the 0.9 (reduction of professional staff) at the middle school that includes the nurse. We’re not dealing with kids today (who) go to the nurse’s office for a headache or a cough or a stubbed toe. We’re dealing with students who have some very serious issues, and I do not think it’s wise of us to not have the personnel on staff to meet their needs.”
School board member Kay Ogrodnik echoed Gardner’s concern, adding, “with the elimination of the 0.4 nurse at the middle school, you give the nurse who’s there 40 percent more work … And her workday is already just loaded.”
Special Services Director Patrick Moore said SAD 75 added two programs at the middle school in recent years to provide support for students with severe disabilities. In addition, he said off-site programs for students with severe autism and chronic mental health challenges diminish some need for nursing services at the middle school.
Smith said with a middle school of a little more than 600 students, about 40 percent of the visits to the school’s nursing office are for daily medications, which are more routine interactions.
“So we’re looking at around 15 to 20 visits a day of students,” Smith said. “Of course any one of those could be significant and take several hours, but if 40 percent of those are routine sort of quick in-and-out type of medication issues, then it seems very reasonable to be able to do that. But that’s for you to decide.”
Board member Linda Hall said, “I think we need to trust that our administration has looked at this and understands what the needs are at that school and all the schools, and it probably is OK to have one nurse.”
Board chairwoman Kim Totten said, “I would like to keep my eye on what’s going on at the middle school, and the one thing that our district is known for is that as we go through the school year, if something seems to be a problem and we need to add somebody, we always take care of it.”
Ogrodnik, noting how department heads and principals cut budgets to keep the bottom line down, argued the school board had not made cuts because it spends $5,600 on board stipends she said could go toward educating students.
Board member Gwendolyn Thomas countered that the stipend equates to $20 per regular school board meeting and since she may attend six or seven meetings in a twoweek period for subcommittee meetings, “it doesn’t even pay for my gas, and we’ve talked about this before. It’s one thing to be a volunteer board; it’s another thing to not even have your expenses at all. I’m not even talking about my time.”
In the end, the board unanimously voted to approve the budget recommended by the Finance Committee. The next phase of the budget process is a district-wide public meeting on May 24, followed by the June 12 referendum.
Joanne Rogers, who chairs the Finance Committee, said Thursday that in the coming year committees will form to study budget impacts of health, library services and foreign languages.
dmoore@timesrecord.com
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