FARMINGTON — School board members abandoned their plan to subcontract custodial services after residents threatened Monday night to derail the Mt. Blue Regional School District 9 budget process just days shy of a validation vote.

More than 200 people turned out for Monday’s budget hearing and many vowed to reject Mt. Blue’s proposed 2012-13 budget unless school board members withdrew the subcontracting plan, Superintendent Michael Cormier said.

Residents eventually approved the $28.9 million budget proposal after school board members made assurances they would not pursue subcontracting and instead negotiate a new contract with the union representing the district custodians, he said Tuesday.

The initial resident approval at the budget hearing was required to send the spending plan to a validation vote, which will be Thursday in the district’s 10 towns. That’s when voters will decide whether to adopt the budget proposal, which would increase the overall amount towns pay in school taxes by about $355,000.

The showdown Monday stems from the school board’s decision last month to authorize the subcontracting to save at least $200,000 in the coming year’s budget and each subsequent year. Their plan included layoffs and cuts in benefits affecting about 40 district custodians and bus drivers unless the union agreed to concessions that equaled the projected subcontracting savings.

The union contract negotiations, however, fell apart recently after officials on both sides said they couldn’t reach an agreement. Before the most recent failure, negotiations had been deadlocked for 14 months.

Some residents opposed to subcontracting called on fellow voters Monday to reject every spending article in the budget proposal, prompting school board members to take a recess from the hearing to meet with district union officials about the stalled contract negotiations, Cormier said.

School board members and Doug Hodum, lead negotiator for the union, agreed to reopen contract negotiations in the near future without the subcontracting option looming over them, he said.

The budget hearing process allows residents to either approve the budget proposal’s spending articles or reduce them. Residents are not allowed to make motions to reallocate money for specific purposes.

Some residents’ proposals to dramatically reduce the overall budget proposal, for instance, would have forced the district to make mass layoffs if the plan was adopted later by a validation vote, Cormier said.

Hodum, who is also a Mt. Blue High School science teacher, on Tuesday said he told school board members the union would reopen contract negotiations as long as the subcontracting was taken off the table.

Following the budget hearing Monday, school board members held a regularly scheduled board meeting where they voted to rescind the decision that authorized the subcontracting option, Cormier said.

The support staff union represents 82 district employees, which includes maintenance workers, education technicians and other support staff besides the custodians and bus drivers.

According to the school board’s plan, if the subcontracting had moved forward, 18 custodians would have been laid off. Additionally, the hours of about 20 bus drivers who also work part time as custodians would have been reduced, eliminating their benefits.

Significant concessions

Hodum said the union members, including those not affected by the subcontracting plan, previously agreed to make significant concessions to save the custodians jobs. Those offers were rejected by school board members handling the negotiations for the district, he said.

He said that Monday night he told the board that the union would be willing to discuss the previous offers again. Hodum and Cormier each said they couldn’t disclose details about contract negotiations.

Robert Flick, one of the three school board members who were opposed to subcontracting from the beginning, said Tuesday that residents at the budget hearing said that the district’s support staff “is part of the whole educational community and that there is a faith in these people to do the best job for the kids.”

Flick described the crowd Monday as a mix of school district union members as well as community members. He is one of five board members representing Farmington.

Claire Andrews, school board vice chairwoman, is among those board members who voted to pursue subcontracting. She also represents Farmington and declined to discuss the issue Tuesday, saying she didn’t want her comments to affect negotiations.

Bruce Rollins, who has worked for Mt. Blue for 15 years as a bus driver and custodian, would have had fewer hours and lost his health insurance under the subcontracting plan.

Rollins, 59, on Tuesday said he is relieved that he doesn’t have to worry about the subcontracting. He and his wife, Brinda, rely on the health insurance benefits from his job at Mt. Blue.

He said the push for subcontracting custodians was unfair and support staff workers “want to be respected as an equal partner in educating our kids.”

The custodians who faced 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.

District administrators receive 80 percent in health benefit reimbursement for themselves and dependents. And teachers receive 83 percent based on the same plan.

Budgetary shortfall

Cormier and school board members have said the savings from subcontracting were necessary to close a budget shortfall caused by rising fuel prices, increases in other fixed operational costs and the loss of federal stimulus money.

A majority of the estimated subcontracting savings was re-allocated in the proposed $28.9 million budget that will be voted on Thursday. If the budget is adopted, the money will be spent to reinstate two teaching positions and fund educational services tied to technology and special education programs.

The remaining $84,000 from the projected subcontracting savings was used in the budget proposal to reduce the overall amount towns pay in school taxes.

Cormier said Tuesday, if the budget is approved, the school board will have to look for ways to replace the estimated subcontracting savings. He noted this will include pursuing concessions from the support staff union along with other options.

Without debt payments for two major school building construction projects, which are being paid for almost entirely by state subsidies, the budget proposal is about $1 million more than spending in the current fiscal year.

If the budget proposal is rejected, the school board must set another budget and hold another hearing to seek initial resident approval before scheduling another validation vote.

David F. Robinson — 861-9287

drobinson@centralmaine.com

Copy the Story Link