ST. ALBANS, Maine — Town managers and board of selectmen members of seven of the eight towns represented in embattled Regional School Unit 19 met on Thursday evening to discuss their frustration and a plan to inform voters of budget problems before the Nov. 6 election.
Due to serious errors in previous budgets — including the fact that member towns were not billed for their obligations to the school district — RSU 19 has a $3.6 million shortfall this year.
On Saturday, residents of Corinna, Dixmont, Etna, Hartland, Newport, Palmyra, Plymouth and St. Albans voted 163-68 to place the district’s proposed $3.6 million loan on the ballot.
Fifteen representatives from seven towns plus Somerset County Commissioner Robin Frost participated in a two-hour workshop in St. Albans’ town hall. Only the town of Plymouth was not represented.
The representatives agree that placing a full-page advertisement in a regional weekly newspaper was the best way to tell the public how the $3.6 million loan would affect residents.
“We, as municipalities, owe the voters the knowledge to know what’s going to happen to them financially on an individual basis,” said Newport Town Manager James Ricker.
The towns will research figures on how much RSU 19’s budget has risen over the past three years compared to that of each town in the same time frame. The representatives agree to let the numbers do the talking.
“[RSU 19 is] going to do what they have to do on that side of things. We need to be out front on this thing and we need to battle back,” said Jason Gould, chairman of St. Albans’ Board of Selectmen. “We can’t just hope with our fingers crossed. They’ve stacked the deck against us before. They’ll do it again.”
“We need to put in there what the taxes are going to be to let the other side be known,” said Newport Board of Selectmen Chairman Tom Breitweg. “We can’t let them walk all over us.”
Several of the representatives expressed concern about the lack of communication between the RSU 19 board members and the towns they represent. Ricker said he emailed all four of Newport’s board members in the past few months and has only heard back from one.
“It seems to be that our school board members are not representing us as a town, but representing the school itself,” said Gould.
Ricker said people are being told that if the loan doesn’t pass, popular programs will be cut.
“We were told last night at our meeting from a lady who was at the school board meeting [on Tuesday] that the first thing they’re going to say is football, basketball and music is immediately going to go [if the loan isn’t approved],” said Ricker. “You know what that’s going to do to the parents and grandparents of the district. It’s a scare tactic.”
RSU 19 Superintendent Greg Potter has said that if the loan isn’t approved on Nov. 6, more cuts will happen. Those cuts are on top of nearly $800,000 that has already been cut from the budget. The district will resubmit a loan to be voted on if the first loan isn’t passed.
Ricker emphasized that the towns just want to present the facts to the voters.
“This isn’t about not supporting school systems and teachers and children and sports. This is not about this,” said Ricker. “This is about your failed administration not being held accountable. That’s what we need to say.”
Ricker went on to say that if he made such a huge accounting mistake, the consequences would be harsh.
“If I lost $1 million for the town of Newport, you’d probably have to come visit me at Penobscot County Jail,” he said.
Jim Ricker is the one who brought the original story to BDN. He likes to point out mistakes of others, but thinks he owns Newport. Lets look into his practice of acquiring town property that residents have lost to taxes. Maybe our administration isn’t failing us, maybe it was Bill Braun – our retired superintendent. He left this mess for Potter who is working diligently to keep our schools running.
No one lost 1 million dollars, If Ricker lost it on bad investments and what not and followed the law. Then no jail. He is trying to link what happened to thief Nothing illegal happened, just bad budgeting. That is not illegal. As for sports being cut being used as a scare tactic what else do they think is going to happen. Of course you are going to have to cut sports and music. That is not a scare tactic, that is the truth.
Even if you aren’t a Jim Ricker fan, this may not be the time to be petulant with him. He is broadly doing the right thing in this Braun created mess, as are the other towns’ leaderships (except poor Plymouth, perhaps). It would be nice if Braun could be penalized rather than simply stigmatized for his ineptitude. (And perhaps Mr. Ricker will take a hint to pay heed and get his clubby and error-prone town office into a more efficient configuration…remembering that Braun’s office’s ineptitudes were fair indications of problems to come.)
Everything Ricker said in that article is untrue.
“It seems to be that our school board members are not representing us as a town, but representing the school itself,” said Gould.
That is actually what the school board members are required to do. You are NOT a representative for an individual town, but a rep for the district as a whole, as an agent of the state. Check with Drummond Woodsum, the school law gurus for Maine.
“[RSU 19 is] going to do what they have to do on that side of things. We
need to be out front on this thing and we need to battle back,” said
Jason Gould, chairman of St. Albans’ Board of Selectmen. “We can’t just
hope with our fingers crossed. They’ve stacked the deck against us
before. They’ll do it again.”
“Battle back” against what, Mr. Gould? My 5th grader’s heartfelt fear that he might lose his French and band teachers in the middle of the year? What part of this district being $3 million in the hole do you not get? How in God’s name is this going to be fixed without an infusion of revenue- and considering the lousy odds of the Maine State Lottery the best source of immediate revenue is probably that loan, now isn’t it? And allow me to add what a GREAT deal joining this train wreck has been for the taxpayers and students of Etna and Dixmont- I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one to curse the day that shotgun marriage took place.
This article is complete fiction. I was at that school board meeting and no such thing was said. Not even anything remotely concerning those programs was discussed. How can people just plain lie like that? This Newport guy hears second hand information and takes it as truth? They are trying to make it as if its the town selectmen against the school board members. Nothing could be further from the truth.
School board members are there to serve the best interest of the children and adult citizens from their towns. A few tea party types in the area have gotten away with a lot of lies and fear mongering.
The one fact that very few people seem to understand here is that this 3.6 million dollar loan will only be bringing the budget up to the 23 million dollar amount that was already approved by the towns back in June. The reason why we need the money is because it is what was budgeted for back then. The numbers in the budget were screwed up and double counted when the money wasn’t there. Add to that the fact the money from the towns was not collected either. None of this loan money is ‘extra’ or more than what was already approved by the citizens of the district.