FARMINGTON — A showdown is looming between Mt. Blue Regional School District officials and the union representing school district custodians, who recently learned they may lose their jobs if they don’t agree to significant concessions.

The school board on Thursday voted 9-3 to allow Superintendent Michael Cormier to subcontract custodial services, seeking to save at least $200,000 in the proposed school budget for the coming year and each subsequent year.

To realize those savings, 18 custodians represented by the school district’s union would have to be laid off. Additionally, the hours of about 20 bus drivers who also work part time as custodians would be reduced, which would eliminate their benefit packages, Cormier said.

The vote last week gives Cormier the authority to make the budget cuts by subcontracting unless an agreement can be reached with the union representing the workers.

School board members approved the measure just weeks shy of a May 15 mediation session between school district officials and the union representing the affected workers and many other district employees.

Contract negotiations between the union and school district have been deadlocked for the past 14 months.

Although the school board’s decision doesn’t halt negotiations, it leaves the union with few options, according to Doug Hodum, lead negotiator for the district’s union support staff workers.

“It puts a lot of pressure on that process and it may limit how far along in the process we can go without taking some actions,” he said.

There is also a fast-approaching deadline because the additional $200,000 in savings is included in the proposed 2012-13 school budget that will be sent to residents for a validation vote Thursday, May 24.

“It would certainly seem that there is a timeline — a very, very public timeline — and that could potentially hinder the productivity of a (mediation) meeting,” Hodum said.

Hodum, who is a science teacher at Mt. Blue High School, said the school board’s vote last week is also a drastic and sudden change. The initial budget proposal “included a raise and no concessions about benefits” for custodial staff, Hodum said. He said he got a call from Cormier about the issue several days before the meeting last week.

Cormier said last week the issue of subcontracting has been discussed for more than a year by school district officials and board members.

“This came up (during the 2011-12 budget debates) and the board voted not to contract out in hopes that they could negotiate and generate some of the savings,” he said.

Cormier estimates subcontracting custodial services would save the district nearly $600,000 over the next two years, depending on various factors. He described the school board’s motivation for the recent vote as being driven by finding savings necessary to close budget shortfalls, rather than putting pressure on upcoming negotiations with the union.

“It’s not our intent to threaten people,” he said.

Hodum said the contract negotiation process has to address a number of issues beyond benefits and salary, adding it has been a very long and less than productive process so far.

The custodians who face layoffs or reduced hours receive 100 percent reimbursement for a single person’s health insurance plan, with the district covering 65 percent for each dependent’s coverage beyond that, Hodum said.

District administrators receive 80 percent in health benefit reimbursement for themselves and dependents, he said. Teachers receive 83 percent based on the same plan.

There are about 175 total employees represented by the school district’s union, the Maine Education Association.

Because the mediation process is ongoing, Cormier and Hodum said they couldn’t discuss other details about the negotiation process.

There are stipulations tied to the subcontracting plan that require the company to give priority to district workers who lose their jobs, Cormier said.

Hodum countered that this clause fails to meet the union’s goal of keeping people earning a livable wage and healthy. Those who would be rehired would “make less money and have no health insurance,” he added.

Opposed to subcontracting

Among the three school board members voting against subcontracting, Robert Flick also cited the ongoing contract negotiations as a reason he couldn’t discuss details about the matter.

“I feel strongly that these are people of our community and we should treat them well,” Flick said. He is one of five board members representing Farmington.

The other two opposing board members — Scott Webber, New Vineyard, and Iris Silverstein, Farmington — didn’t return calls Tuesday.

The school board on Thursday also voted 12-1 to approve its final version of the proposed 2012-13 Mt. Blue school budget.

A majority of the $200,000 in estimated subcontracting savings was re-allocated to reinstate two teaching positions — math and reading intervention specialists — that had been cut out of previous versions of the budget proposal, Cormier said.

Of the projected subcontracting savings, educational services tied to technology and special education programs also received $30,000 and $35,000, respectively. The remaining money from changes in custodial services will be allocated to reduce the overall amount towns pay in school taxes, Cormier said last week.

Budget cuts for the coming year remained necessary despite the school district’s addition of another town, which is brining added revenue, Cormier said. The district is receiving $400,000 in added state aid because Starks recently joined.

Cormier noted the budget shortfalls are caused by increases in other fixed operational costs, such as fuel and mandated educational programs. The district also lost federal stimulus money this year that had previously helped absorb some of the costs over the past few years, he added.

While some residents complained that the increase in budget comes from school construction projects, Cormier said the school is not increasing its budget to pay the annual debt on the construction of W.G. Mallett Elementary School and a new high school complex. State subsidies are paying for nearly the entire cost of the projects, which have a combined cost of more than $70 million, he said.

He didn’t know specific data Friday about the change in the overall amount of school taxes to be raised and could not be reached Tuesday.

The $28,907,417 budget proposal approved last week will be presented at the district budget meeting Monday, May 21, in the Mt. Blue High School gymnasium at 7 p.m. The validation vote will be May 24.

The actions taken Thursday by the school board reduced the initial budget proposal by $84,565. That initial proposal would have increased the overall amount district towns pay in school taxes by 4.3 percent, or $439,340.

Without the debt payments, the initial budget proposal was about $1 million more than spending in the current fiscal year.

David F. Robinson — 861-9287

drobinson@centralmaine.com