ROCKPORT, Maine — Among the options being considered by the Five Town CSD to make up for an anticipated $1 million school budget deficit are eliminating the entire sports program, cutting chunks of academic programs and making students pay to ride the school bus.
The Five Town CSD serves the ninth- through 12th-grade students of Appleton, Camden, Hope, Lincolnville and Rockport. The district’s finance committee Wednesday night discussed how many staff positions and student programs at Camden Hills Regional High School would have to be cut next year to account for a $1,049,313 reduction in state funding. School administrators came up with a long list of options — about 70 lines of cuts to make up for the projected deficit.
At the guillotine are more than 18 positions, the entire sports program and possibly free bus rides. Making students pay to play sports and ride the school buses are some options the district is contemplating to keep the budget down, as well as student activity fees and parking fees.
Possible staff reductions highlighted on the budget include but are not limited to teachers in math, English, science, social studies, Latin, French, business, art, special education, music, Spanish and family consumerism. They also include positions in administration, food service, counseling, alternative education, library, custo-dial services and athletics.
The committee, which met Wednesday night at the high school, will be in talks through April before its recommendations are presented for a vote by residents of each of the five member towns.
The options include cutting mass amounts of the school’s academics, increasing property taxes or some combination of the two.
Mike Weatherwax, assistant superintendent, said cutting the more than $1 million from the high school is possible — “anything is possible” — but it won’t be the same school if enough programs get the boot. Weatherwax said Camden Hills Regional High has one of the best graduation rates in Maine and risks losing that if pro-grams such as music and athletics are bled dry.
“These are the types of things that keep kids in school,” Weatherwax said. “We try to meet the students’ interests.”
But if programs don’t get cut, the taxpayers must take on the burden. In some cases, that burden is almost $70 per $100,000 of home valuation in Lincolnville. The tax impact ranges, Linconville’s being the highest. Camden’s is the lowest with an additional $20.76 in property taxes for every $100,000 in home valuation.
John Fitzgerald, a math teacher at Camden Hills Regional High, thinks the budget has to land somewhere in the middle, a place where the taxpayers don’t take on all the burden but the school doesn’t have to cut everything either.
“A realistic best outcome would be to have the community support the school budget that the board formulates — but that budget should be something between full support and no support,” Fitzgerald said after the finance meeting.
He knows his fellow teachers are afraid for their jobs.
“Faculty are concerned,” he said. “It means the elimination of positions. It’s a sensitive topic. There is a lot of anxiety.”
Parents are concerned, too.
Piet Lamert is an assistant principal at the high school, and he said the whole reason he moved to Rockport was so his young children could access the school system. His children have not entered high school yet, and he is concerned that they will not get the high school education that he moved to Rockport to give them.
The committee encouraged community members to contact the board with suggestions. Members can be reached by e-mail at csdpass@fivetowns.net.
The next meeting is 9 a.m.-noon Saturday, March 6, in Camden Hills Regional High School’s Chorus Room.