ROCKLAND, Maine — The proposed RSU 13 budget for 2012-2013 calls for cutting 26 jobs.
Even with those cuts, however, more property taxes will be needed from communities in the district.
The budget was unveiled Monday by acting Superintendent Neal Guyer and Business Manager Scott Vaitones after meetings with principals and department heads.
The administrators proposed a budget of $26.5 million, a 2.2 percent increase of $558,536 in spending from the voter-approved 2011-2012 budget. The increase is the result of higher costs associated with new labor contracts approved during the past year, and to cover greater special education costs.
The proposed budget cuts involve 12 teaching positions, eight educational technicians, and six support staffers, including administrative assistants, custodial and maintenance positions. Not all are full-time posts. The full-time equivalents total 21.55 positions.
Vaitones said the teaching cuts include an industrial arts position that serves Thomaston Grammar, St. George, Rockland District Middle and Oceanside West schools. A high school art teacher, an eighth-grade position at St. George, and a kindergarten position at Gilford Butler are posts marked for elimination under the proposed budget.
Vaitones said the people holding those positions were notified Monday but said those people may not end up being the employees who are laid off since employees have bumping rights under the labor contracts. He also said when people leave jobs in midyear they are not being filled from the outside.
The proposed cuts for 2012-2013 follow the elimination of 30 positions two years ago.
The administrators said no additional administration cuts were proposed because of reductions already made in the past three years with the formation of RSU 13 out of neighboring SADs 5 and 50. Additional administration cuts should be made with comment from the next superintendent, the budget message stated.
In addition, the district calls for cutting $760,000 out of supplies, software licenses, workshop and conference travel, equipment and athletics in the 2012-2013 budget.
The administrators made their formal budget presentation Monday night at the McLain School.
The administrators said there were several significant factors making the development of this budget difficult while meeting the directive of the board from a few months ago to keep the spending increase to no more than 4 percent of the current school year budget.
The district already is spending $500,000 more for special education this year than was budgeted. That increase occurred after parents and an advocacy organization for special education students said they did not feel the district had been meeting the needs of some students. The administrators said those extra costs incurred this year are expected to continue into the 2012-2013 budget and total $700,000 because two additional RSU 13 students expected to have to be placed in programs outside the district.
Also, the new contracts approved by the board over the past year for employees will add $225,000 in wages. Health insurance costs will add another $245,000 to the budget.
“Personnel cost accounts for about 73 to 75 percent of our total budget, and is one of the best investments that we make in supporting education. RSU 13 is exceedingly fortunate to have a dedicated and talented cadre of professionals and support staff,” the administrators stated in its message to the board and staff.
The loss of $470,000 in federal stimulus money and $370,000 in state education subsidies also have created a challenge for the district, the administrators said.
RSU 13 includes Rockland, Thomaston, St. George, Cushing, South Thomaston and Owls Head.
Even with the cuts made by the administration, every community will have to raise additional property taxes to support the budget. Rockland is projected to have to raise an additional $321,133, or 4.5 percent, in 2012-2013. St. George will have to pay an additional $142,328, or 3.5 percent; Thomaston an additional $133,172, or 4.3 percent; Owls Head $131,669, or 5.8 percent; South Thomaston $118,061, or 4.9 percent, more; and Cushing $7,390, or 0.3 percent, more than in the current year.
“There are hard hits for towns like Rockland,” Vaitones said.
Budget meetings are scheduled for March 28, April 2, 4, 9, 11 and 23 with adoption expected at the April 23 meeting. The districtwide budget meeting is scheduled for May 29 and a referendum vote on June 12.
It’s ok.. they can go to work at the methadone clinic… wtf.. we need to get our priorities down.
Rockland, Camden, Rockport whatever else should be combined into one S.A.D. In fact, I thought that was supposed to happen years ago. Why does some tiny coastal community still have a Superintendent. Maine would be OK with 5-10 of them. Not 80.
BS! Consolidation rarely actually saves money and when it does it’s only due to the final product becoming the lowest common denominator, not increasing quality. Please let us know of one local example where combining/consolidating actually worked out well?
260,000 extra for raises and health insurance in this economy ??? Taxes are just gonna HAVE to go up ??? The public meetings will be just a bit “interesting” I bet…
Not much can be done about the health care part. That is part of what teachers get in their contracts.
As for raises, districts can ask the union to give up raises (it may help keep some of those positions). I wonder if they have asked or will?
Unfortunately that’s the mentality that goes into the negotiations you refer to. Are your co-pays going up? Are your out of pocket thresholds being increased? Are your deductibles being increased? Yes, yes, and yes. But not for the teachers. They still have the same sweetheart benefits deal they’ve always had . . . . the real world has yet to catch up to them.
Free money, thanks Obama
Good news! WalMart and McDonald’s are hiring. The pay is not that great, but when you figure in the benefit package ( LLIHEAP, EBT card, MaineCare, etc.) it is a pretty sweet deal.
Mac Ds in North Dakota is, $18 an hour with a sign on Bonus, if I were looking for work, I would find someway to get to ND.
So easy for the State to fund 55% of the cost of education when Special Education costs are pulled directly from the local taxpayers.
Who would dare complain at budget meetings?
Yet another example of why consolidation almost never saves money. In this case it neither saves money nor does it produce a better product. Almost everyone is paying more, and the students are getting less. Way to go!
Keep on cutting!
Cut the one program that will most likey get you a job today, Industrial Arts, skilled labor is where the jobs are today, Fisher Plow in Rockland is always hiring.
Sad part is as mentioned above is that there are students who need special education/mental health treatment and it is required for the school district to provide for these children even when they can’t function in the school system. We have several children who are brought to a mental health center everyday of the week. This requires the cost of the care and the cost of a full time person that commutes them back and forth. They take the bus to school then go to the mental health center and then brought back to catch the bus at the end of the day. Between these handful of kids and a fulltime provider it costs the district thousands of dollars. At the same time the specifics of these children can’t be discussed amongst the public due to their medical condition and would be considered a breach of doctor/patient confidentiality. These are costs that we have absolutely no control over and like I said have no choice over. These costs far exceed combined salaries and several administrator postions.
But, according to the article, an extra $200,000 for two students?
Maybe they should start with the people at Central Office, They have no clue what goes on in theses schools.
Rather than support decent pay and benefits for teachers (and teachers in Maine are near the bottom of the list for salary and benefits compared to other states) some of those commenting here would seem to prefer to bring wages for everyone down to the lowest possible level rather than fighting to raise salary and benefits for everyone relative to training, experience, supply and demand.
Where is the RSU 13 budget online? I don’t see it on the RSU 13 website. There is enormous need here for making these huge budget decisions much more public. There aren’t even current minutes.
And why is this a referendum?