Maine news, sports, weather from Waterville Morning Sentinel

Closing of school on table

BY SCOTT MONROE Staff Writer

BURNHAM -- "I'd hate to see us lose this school with the possibility that it could be used as a school again."

Retired teacher Nancy Edge made that comment Monday night during the first of two public meetings on $337,000 in proposed cuts to the 2010-11 budget of School Administrative District 53.

The meeting was held inside the small Burnham Village School on Troy Road, which is proposed to be closed as part of the cuts. Another meeting is scheduled for Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Warsaw Middle School cafeteria in Pittsfield.

A dozen people attended the meeting, including parents, residents and school officials, and they bemoaned what they saw as the inevitable loss of their "community school" that is cherished as a place of learning and a home.

"It looks like the writing's on the wall," Edge said. "They're probably going to close our school here."

The proposed cuts are aimed at partially filling an upcoming budget shortfall that could be as large as about $900,000, according to SAD 53 Superintendent Michael Gallagher. The district's budget proposal is about $10 million.

Cost-cutting ideas under consideration, and the estimated savings, include:

* Closing the superintendent's office on Hartland Road and relocating central offices elsewhere ($28,000);

* Closing the Burnham Village School and saving on transportation costs, cutting a full-time custodian and part-time secretary there and losing travel reimbursement expenses for staff ($181,000 total). The proposal involves relocating kindergarten students to the Manson Park School and first-grade students to the Vickery School.

* Cutting several positions, including a full-time and a part-time custodian, part-time secretary, a teacher, an assistant principal and stipends for an administrator and secretary who run the adult education program ($128,000).

But even with the $337,000 in proposed cuts, school officials still don't know how they can close the budget shortfall without raising property taxes.

On top of the $526,000 in state-aid cuts, SAD 53 faces a $200,000 deficit in its carry-forward fund and a $100,000 reduction in Medicaid funding, Gallagher said.

Included in the state-aid cuts is a $182,000 penalty because the school district hasn't complied with the state's school consolidation law.

Gallagher told the audience Monday night that he had hoped to report on the district's request to be exempt from the consolidation penalty, under a so-called "doughnut hole" exemption in state law.

However, he said a planned meeting on that request scheduled Monday with Education Commissioner Susan Gendron didn't happen because Gendron apparently had to instead be in Washington, D.C. "She didn't come to our meeting," Gallagher said.

Gallagher explained to meeting attendees that SAD 53's board of directors is aiming to minimize the harm of the proposed cuts by targeting buildings first, while leaving programs and staffing as intact as possible.

The board will need to decide at its next meeting on March 1 whether to close the Burnham Village School. If it votes to do so, the matter would go to a referendum vote in all three towns in a couple months.

Burnham residents at Monday's meeting seemed resigned to losing the school, which could be kept by the district or sold or leased, but they wondered whether the community would be losing more than dollars and cents, too.

Resident Regina Basford said the school's closing will mean more travel time and longer days for her granddaughter.

"It's a shame to close this school. My fear is, once we make this harsh decision, we can't go back," Basford said.

Asked what she thought of the proposal, Burnham Village School Principal Faye Anderson said her teachers would still offer a great kindergarten program in a different building if need be. Still, "it is a community school. It saddens me," Anderson said.

Resident Linda Mitchell said that whatever the school district decides, the important thing is that local students are able to receive quality education.

"My concern is the child," Mitchell said. "I want them to be happy and to learn. I want the children taken care of."

Scott Monroe -- 861-9253

smonroe@centralmainecom