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SAD 74 weighs staff cuts to stay within budget

By Erin Rhoda erhoda@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

NORTH ANSON -- Thirteen teaching and staff positions cut. Salary and benefits freezes for all employees. No transportation for pre-kindergarteners.

These are some of the options School Administrative District 74 board members began considering Wednesday night as they try to fill a $962,454 hole in their 2010-11 budget.

"You do what you have to do when you're up against the wall," Superintendent Kenneth Smith told board members and more than 40 residents at the three-hour meeting.

It was the first time board members saw the spreadsheet of proposed cuts recommended by district administrative personnel. Board members and budget committee members will continue to discuss the cuts throughout the budget process, Smith said; and the numbers probably will change as state and local revenue pictures become clearer.

The proposal includes $541,470 in personnel reductions and $636,387 in other reductions.

The teaching and staff positions that district officials will consider cutting include three secretary positions, the dean of students, one maintenance/grounds position, one library/media assistant, one social worker, one foreign-language teacher and two elementary school teachers.

Proposed cuts also include eliminating half of a physical education position, half of a mathematics teacher position and half of a special education teacher position. A teacher for half of a music teaching position is retiring.

School board members voted Wednesday to eliminate the position of assistant superintendent, saving $5,702, the amount paid to Regina Campbell, who assumed those duties in addition to her full-time position as principal of Carrabec Community School.Proposed measures also include restructuring adult education to save $10,000 and offering only General Educational Development diplomas and high school diplomas.

Other proposed reductions include eliminating the $161,000 administrative consolidation penalty, which the district is scheduled to incur for not joining with another district. The district is filing with the Maine Department of Education for an exemption.

Voters in neighboring SAD 13 and SAD 59 rejected merging with SAD 74.

School officials say they have exhausted all options in their attempts to comply with the state's consolidation law and, therefore, they should not be penalized -- but a state official cautioned that no decision has been made.

Jim Rier, director of finance and operations at the education department, said the district should not expect to receive the exemption since there are still surrounding districts with which it could potentially combine. The state education committee, however, has recommended to the appropriations committee that 15 districts statewide, include the Anson district, should have their penalties waived next year, he said. The Legislature will make the final decision.

Other cuts also include a salary, wage and health insurance freeze for all district employees, but that $280,823 reduction would be subject to approval by the teachers' union, the Maine Education Association.

"I haven't sensed a tremendous amount of enthusiasm for a wage and benefits freeze," said Dave Ela, president of the local branch, the Carrabec Education Association, but he said he is willing to talk with district officials.

Other cuts include a total of $194,564 taken from a variety of line items. Eliminating transportation for pre-kindergarteners would save $15,000 in fuel costs, according to the district. Redefining bus routes and eliminating an additional 10,000 miles would save $17,000 in fuel costs.

Some other proposals include cutting $25,435 from the maintenance/transportation budget, $38,775 from the Carrabec High School budget, $27,354 from Embden Elementary School and Carrabec Community School budgets, $27,000 in technology budget cuts and $28,000 from food services.

The $962,454 gap includes consideration of $73,500 that the district discovered Wednesday it will receive from the state, after revised forecasting projected a $51 million increase in state revenue this year and next.

School board members also approved Wednesday night a resolution to petition Maine's Congressional delegation to redirect funding from military spending to education.

The district's towns are Anson, Solon, Embden and New Portland.

Erin Rhoda -- 474-9534

erhoda@centralmaine.com