FORT KENT, Maine — Concerned by what it feels are spiraling education costs districtwide, the Town Council voted unanimously Monday night in favor of a resolution to “insist” that local educational expenditures be brought in line with the state’s essential programs and services school funding model.
In the current fiscal year, SAD 27’s budget exceeded the EPS model by $1 million, more than half of which is funded by local property taxes.
“The Town Council basically feels the education financial situation is getting out of control,” Louis Moreau, council chairman, said Wednesday morning. “We cannot continue selling mill rate increases to the public and to the taxpayers.”
According to Moreau, Fort Kent’s mill rate increased by 14 percent this year to $16.35 per $1,000 of property valuation. He was concerned about a similar or larger increase in the coming year.
The council’s resolution states that local education expenses are unsustainable at current levels and place excessive burdens on taxpayers. Failure to take swift action could mean negative effects to local education at a later date, it continued.
“We felt it was time to make the taxpayers aware of this fact,” Moreau said. “We thought the proclamation would do this and send a strong message.”
In June, voters in SAD 27, which serves Fort Kent, St. John Plantation, St. Francis, Wallagrass, New Canada, Eagle Lake and Winterville, passed a 2011 fiscal year budget of $11.5 million, which included nearly $4 million to be raised and appropriated by those member towns.
SAD 27, along with SAD 10 of Allagash, is also part of AOS 95 for administrative purposes only.
“At this point I would say that the [Fort Kent] town council is certainly justified in their position,” James O’Malley, SAD 27 board of directors chairman, said Wednesday. “It’s a real problem and a real concern.”
At the same time, O’Malley said that, while the state’s EPS school funding formula is a good guideline, it does not take into account increased transportation costs experienced by districts covering a large geographic area like SAD 27.
“We will always have those costs that push us above the EPS,” he said.
Facing a projected $345,000 budget shortfall next year, the SAD 27 board at its annual fall retreat began looking at major cost-cutting options, including closing one of the district’s four elementary schools.
Closure talk centered on the Wallagrass Elementary School and during a heavily attended school board meeting in October, the board voted to postpone any cuts to address the anticipated budget gap.
In its resolution this week, the Town Council included language singling out one board member and his involvement in the decision to postpone any cost-cutting action.
“At a recently held school board meeting several cost savings measures were on the agenda which had been identified by the school board at their annual board retreat,” states the proclamation. “The same board members voted to table action on these cost savings measures after being swayed by a single board member who had not participated in the board retreat.”
The councilors made no secret they were referring to SAD 27 board member John Martin of Eagle Lake.
“The councilors all felt basically John Martin persuaded the [school] board to vote the way it did in total disregard for what they had proposed for cuts,” Moreau said Wednesday.
In addition, Moreau said the board was convinced to disregard budget reduction recommendations made by a 2001 independent study. Even a decade ago, those recommendations included closing a school.
“There is no question I made the motion to table any action on proposed budget cuts,” Martin said Wednesday morning. “I did so because there is no state budget and there will not be one until May of 2011, so to assume we will have a $345,000 deficit is premature.”
The fiscal budget year runs from July 1 to June 30.
Martin said recent numbers from Augusta showing the state shortfall is in fact half of a previously projected $1 billion shortfall. The new estimates also indicate that revenues were up $40 million last month, which could mean increased funding for education, he said.
“The council never discussed this proclamation with the school board or [the superintendent],” Martin said. “They have every right to speak out and be part of our budget discussion, but that was really a message they should have sent to the school board.”
Martin said it shouldn’t be assumed because the board postponed action on budget cuts this fall that no reductions are forthcoming.“That is not the case,” he said. “There will be cuts, and the voters will have to decide on those.”
Several residents spoke in favor of increased community involvement in the school budget process during the October board meeting.
Since then, O’Malley said, there has been little talk directed at the board.
“I’m still waiting for people to come through with cost savings ideas,” O’Malley said. “During that meeting in October we had put out a couple of big ticket solutions, and they got thrown away by the board.”
O’Malley said smaller budgetary solutions — including increasing student parking fees at the high school and selling advertising space on school buses — were also rejected by the board of directors.
“There seems to be no way to build consensus and that I find frustrating,” O’Malley said. “It is my roll as chair to build that consensus, and based on the results I have not been all that successful.”
But O’Malley remains optimistic and believes the voting public in SAD 27 has the best interests of the schools in mind.
“The board will respond to what its constituents want, and we need to hear from all of them,” he said. “Our children remain our primary focus, and we want to do what is best for them, but people need to understand [any cuts] will hurt and will hurt everyone.”
Moreau agrees that difficult fiscal decisions are looming for both school and municipal budgets.
“On the municipal side it’s looking like there could be a 1 mill increase, though I will recommend a zero increase,” he said. “If the council expects the school district to come back with a zero increase, the Town Council should be looking to do the same.”
