BRUNSWICK, Maine — School districts across Maine learned Thursday the latest estimates from the Department of Education of how much state money might come their way for the next school year.
The new figures meet a statutory requirement that the department provide estimates about its next-year funding for schools in early February. But the numbers are subject to change by whatever actions are taken by the 125th Legislature between now and the end of the session. That means the figures released Thursday are preliminary.
According to data from the department, some districts will see major increases, such as more than $2.9 million for the Farmington-area RSU 9, which will receive the largest dollar increase in the state. For others, such as the Brunswick School Department, which is projected to get about $1.2 million less than this year, the biggest reduction statewide, the news was not good.
“I was shocked,” said Brunswick Superintendent Paul Perzanoski on Thursday. “This is really catastrophic.”
Among the losers, according to Thursday’s data, are Bangor, Brewer, Eastport, Madawaska and Rockland. Those that will receive increased funding include Auburn, East Millinocket, Hermon, Machias, Portland and Dexter.
Perzanoski said his district was told by the department last fall that it could expect a $243,000 increase in funding for the next school year, which makes the net decrease he learned about on Thursday more in the range of $1.5 million out of a budget of about $33 million. The cut expected next year comes on the heels of $4.2 million in cuts to state aid for Brunswick schools in the past two years, which translated to the loss of about 90 staff positions districtwide and the closure of two elementary schools.
Despite the opening of a new elementary school last year, Perzanoski said most of the district’s buildings are at or past capacity.
“We’re bursting at the seams,” he said.
Perzanoski and Deputy Education Commissioner Jim Rier agreed that the major factor in Brunswick is the closure of Brunswick Naval Air Station, which has contributed to a loss of about 800 students since 2008 for a total of about 2,500. Still, Perzanoski said the cut predicted Thursday will result in reduced programming and likely increased class sizes.
“There doesn’t seem to be any reason for cuts like this to a district of this size,” said Perzanoski. “Based on what’s happened to the community, I would think there would have to be some sort of stopgaps available.”
In the Lewiston School Department, which is projected to see about $1.2 million more state aid next year for a budget of around $52 million, the population situation is opposite of Brunswick’s. Superintendent Bill Webster said that as more people have moved to Lewiston, the School Department’s enrollment has been increasing by about 100 students a year and is projected to keep doing so for the next decade. That, combined with a citywide reduction in the tax base, were what led to the increase in state dollars.
However, Lewiston and most other districts in Maine also are losing money in Medicaid reimbursements and federal funding from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 is running out. In Lewiston those two factors translate to a loss of about $1 million — and the district still has to pay for more teachers and classroom space to accommodate the rising enrollment.
“We need every bit of these dollars,” said Webster.
Rier said a variety of factors caused swings in the amount of money that will go to each town, including changes in student enrollment and special education costs. In the case of Farmington’s big increase, Rier said much of that is because of construction of a new high school, part of which will be paid for by the state in the next school year.
Overall, the total amount of state money for schools in 2012-13 will be about $915 million, which is an increase of around $19 million over this year.
But that is subject to major changes under consideration by the Legislature, including budget discussions about how to plug a $220 million shortfall in the Department of Health and Human Services. Rier said exact figures for state subsidies won’t be known until the Legislature adjourns.
Rier said he heard from a handful of school districts Thursday, most of them wondering why their amounts changed from projections released late last year.
“Last fall, we didn’t have any way of calculating the [student population] numbers,” said Rier. “Today’s numbers reflect all of the conditions for each district.”
Other major funding decreases predicted by the department Thursday include Bangor, $205,000; Brewer, $351,000; Easton, $550,000; Eastport, $310,000; Madawaska, $137,000; RSU 79 (Presque Isle), $640,000; RSU 3 (Unity area), $458,000; MSAD 27 (Fort Kent), $315,000; RSU 49 (Fairfield area), $442,000; RSU 75 (Topsham area), $317,000; Indian Township, $223,000; and RSU 13 (Rockland), $344,000.
Districts that can expect major increases in funding include Auburn, $935,000; Biddeford, $1 million; East Millinocket, $742,000; Falmouth, $1.9 million; Hermon, $628,000; Machias, $293,000; Millinocket, $817,000; Portland, $924,000; South Portland, $981,000; RSU 1 (Bath area), $1.4 million; RSU 80 (Guilford area), $293,000; RSU 22 (Hampden area), $1.9 million; RSU 41 (LaGrange area), $584,000; MSAD 46 (Dexter), $504,000; and RSU 54 (Skowhegan), $766,000.
Let me get this straight . . . Falmouth is one of the schools to receive major increases???
A number that big has to be driven by a capital investment that the state is contributing to, a phase of new school construction or something of that nature.
The southern end of the state always receive MORE money, while “the other Maine” always receives less…..or no money. Just like the Maine State Lottery……the southern end of the the state always has big money winners, while the rest of the state….well, you catch my drift……the schools that need it most, get the shaft. And people wonder why schools are closing!
will you people quit your belly aching and just secede already
Falmouth is the fasting growing school in the state. They are larger than Westbrook and are going to move to Class A.
Of course all these figures aren’t written in stone, what with the constant threats from Governor LePage to cut funding for schools if he doesn’t get his way in other departments.
How in hell does cutting one end of the State, by thousands and increasing the other end by millions, save any money?
It’s the same model Augusta uses for funding the Maine Maritime Academy. The $9,000,000 subsidy for a student body of which nearly 1/2 are from out of state who graduate and never look back is an investment in Maine’s future .. or that’s what they claim. Moody’s rating service would give the business model it a Ccc- rating which is two grades below junk status if it were a business firm.
With a popoulation of just over 1000 we are well heeled in Embden to easily accept an increase of nearly a quarter of a million dollars, no problem! Of course that is if it wasn’t for our sour econmy, lowering property values, decreeasing student population, higher teacher salaries and low student performance this news would be all sunshine and lollipops.
Nice to see that once again that FALMOUTH is raking in the dough…No, of COURSE there is no correlation between all the dough that ends up in SOUTHERN Maine and the funding formula…None whatsoever…
Great, now we all know just how much money LePage is going to hijack come May 1st. If we all think school budget’s are tight now, just wait and see what is going to be actually available after Paul has his way. The circus isin’t even in town but the Band’s music can already be heard. And the comment about Northern Maine is more than a bit accurate. Just go look at the funding level’s over the past 5 years by SAD or RSU. The level’s and their ‘adjustment’s’ are not a big surprise to us folk’s up here. And Bowen and Company wonder why so many of the school’s up here in The County keep winding up on the marginal list. They ought to call it the life support list for all the support we get from Augusta.
Certainly odds favor that the final funding number will be lower, maybe a lot lower, than the current number because one element of the Republican agenda is to get rid of public education. The Koch brothers, who are the puppeteers behind many Republican activities at the state level, have been advocating this since the 1970’s.
Only good as the paper with disappearing ink it’s printed on. When the Augusta bully gets done with it, schools will be lucky to get any money.
Eastport getting screwed again. What is the reason behind the decrease in funding?
Hampden 1.9 million…..hey we need to pay for that new high school somehow!!!
Hamden the well to do town gets $1.9 million Brewer loses more than Bangor. Give to the rich steal from the poor.
At $30,000.00 per year is there any question as to why students from around the world are so valuable to these school districts?
How is a town of 1300 people like Easton supposed to absorb a $550k loss. This is just ridiculous and whoever did the planning clearly has no idea about many of these small towns in the state. There really has to be something said or done about this. I’m just dumbfounded at those kinds of numbers.
how about RSU 20, Belfast, Searport?
I’m glad to see that our(East Millinocket) share is going to be higher. But the story Nick Sambides should be covering is Gov Lepage holding back the sudden and severe money from the towns and holding it hostage until an agreement is made with the state on how to manage them. He is forcing the towns into a agreement that they don’t have the funds for and he approved of the state taking over the landfills. If he would allow the towns to profit over them by allowing waste to be brought to them, the towns would be a lot better off.
It does not seem that many posting here understand the funding formula. Factors include, valuation of the town, student population, dept service, special ed costs, etc. The state is not making funding decisions based on geography. Schools on the coast get hit by valuation, schools up north get hit with lower student populations. Hampden gets an increase because of the new high school, the state puts in more for dept service. Acting as if someone in Augusta is out to get any town, or out to help some towns is just not how funding works.
I am sure many other towns could use a new high school. The towns that could more afford to do it on thier own are paid for by the towns that are having a hard time.
If you get extra money for a new school, why is Brewer losing $350,000 this year with a brand new K-8 complex they just built? Maybe the formula needs a little tweaking?
It’s a known fact that southern Maine is always put first. Northern Maine just doesn’t have the population so we get ignored. Baldacci rarely visited northern Maine during his terms (even if he was scheduled to), yet he had no problem cutting our school’s budget because we couldn’t consolidate due to location (which was in the bill). If he had been to northern Maine more than twice he would know how spread out our towns are and our budget (along with others) wouldn’t have suffered such major budget cuts. I don’t think LePage or Baldacci are “out to get us” or “help other towns more”, but I’m 100% sure that they aren’t going out of their way to help us either. If they were, the south wouldn’t be getting almost all of the money.