MADAWASKA, Maine — Options put on the table Thursday afternoon to reduce the Madawaska School budget would gut academics and extracurricular activities, and eliminate 20 percent of the teaching staff.
“I can’t recommend anything I am proposing here today,” Superintendent Terry Wood told her school committee during an emergency meeting at the Madawaska High School. “But you asked me to look at the numbers and these are what they are.”
Earlier this month residents voted down a proposed $7 million School Department budget and mandated the committee cut more than 7 percent — or $525,000 — from that budget.
At the same meeting on Nov. 19, voters approved a municipal budget reflecting $250,000 in cuts.
The need for the budget cutbacks was prompted by property tax abatements granted to Twin Rivers Paper Co., reducing its valuation from $170 million to $85 million over a four-year period beginning in fiscal year 2010.
“We need to take action on the people’s mandate to make these cuts,” Yves Dube, school committee chairman, said Thursday. “It is our responsibility to take action.”
To meet the more than half million dollars in cuts, Wood suggested one option that included eliminating nine full-time teaching positions and several support staff and ed tech positions; cutting staff hours; reducing administrative pay by 1 percent; implementing four mandatory furlough days; eliminating middle school, junior varsity and varsity athletics; shortening the school year by one day; and cutting the pay of all teachers by 2.2 percent.
Programs and staff positions could be saved, Wood said, under an alternate plan calling for an 11 percent salary reduction for teachers.
“I personally do not begin to think this will not impact students,” Wood said. “But there is nothing left in the budget to begin with that does not impact students.”
School committee members are up against a tight deadline to act on the options with a special town meeting scheduled for Dec. 10 for residents to vote on a new budget. Under Maine law, the agenda of that special meeting must be posted seven days before it is held.
Saying this was the first time they had seen Wood’s options, board members opted Thursday to table any decision on the budget until a special committee meeting Monday afternoon, with the place and time to be announced.
Thursday’s meeting originally had been scheduled for the superintendent’s conference room but was moved to the high school library when more than 200 residents showed up.
Proposed cuts to staff and programs were not popular options among voters attending the meeting.
“Before you make any decision I have three suggestions for you,” resident James Cyr told the school committee. “Go into the gym and look at our championship banners [and] then go into the band room and look at the photos of the band [and] then look at every kid here in the eye because those are the faces of education you are destroying.”
Earlier this week school officials canceled preseason basketball games at the varsity and middle school levels pending resolution of the budget problems, a move some saw as vindictive.
“I saw that decision to stop those sports as a really passive aggressive move,” Meghan Gendreau said, referring to the cancellation earlier this week of preseason basketball games the boys and girls high school teams were scheduled to play. “Cutting those games was directed at the kids and there were so many broken hearts and tears [and] I felt the kids were pawns [and] this was a shot at the parents.”
The time has come, several residents said, for the community to work together.
“The [voters] are not going to approve a budget unless it is cut so that has to happen,” Paul Roy, a 2006 graduate of Madawaska High School, said. “But it is unfair to fire teachers and unfair to cut sports. We can’t point fingers at the school board [and] the time has come to compromise, but drastic cuts are not the way to go.”
If the committee were to accept Wood’s options, the reality for Madawaska students would be bleak, high school principal Wayne Anderson said.
Language, theater, writing, science, mathematics, social studies and Advanced Placement programs all would be cut with student schedules limited to core classes and study halls, Anderson said.
“These are not my recommendations,” the principal said. “But this is what things will look like if this budget gets passed.”
In agreeing to take the matter up for final action on Monday, school committee members also directed Wood to request the date of the special town meeting to act on a proposed school budget be moved back a few days from the Dec. 10 date to give the committee more time to consider the cuts.
“These cuts are the mandate of the people and will be very difficult to address,” Dube said. “We are just hearing them for the first time today and need the time to consider them.”
“The need for the budget cutbacks was prompted by property tax abatements granted to Twin Rivers Paper Co., reducing its valuation from $170 million to $85 million over a four-year period beginning in fiscal year 2010.”
So all those cuts because a corporation is skirting its responsibility. 9 teachers gone? So disgusting what’s happening in this country.
So don’t support said corporation
beyond that, what are you crying about?….after all, you support various corporations EVERYDAY with no compunctions or complaints whatsoever
It’s true, the big corporations effectively tax us all the time, but it is the Republicans refuse to see that.
This is a very specific example. Google or whatever else has nothing to do with this. The tax abatement is directly responsible for the need to cut 9 teaching positions among other things.
The school’s high school/middle website shows there is about 22 teachers and the elementary school likely has a similar amount. We’re talking a 1/4 or 1/5 cut in amount of teachers. That’s a big deal — me not whining about McDonald’s everyday is completely irrelevant.
This falls into a general pattern sweeping the nation: an attack on education and educators. The reason is that educated people learn that global warming is human caused, that evolution isn’t just one theory next to creationism, that fanatic faith divorced from reason is a dangerous force, that birthers are ridiculous, that, as an infamous quote goes, “the great masses of the people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.”
Education is the enemy of those who seek power through demagoguery and ignorance.
The way I see this is not an attack on education, but rather there not being enough money to meet the towns obligations. Just a microcosm of what is going on with the entire country and I fear we are going to more and more of this. Wonder if Twin Rivers would still be in operation if it had not received the abatement… I think not.
The ‘big lie’ is found in religions such as ‘climate change science’ and ‘christianity’
Good Heavens, in that case kids can get ‘educated’ just by reading the BDN’s op-ed pages: no need for schools at all.
I suspect this crisis owes more to ‘no money’ than to the Right’s objections to the education establishment’s Progressive monoculture.
The school system needs to follow the model of UMaine under the leadership of former Pres. Robert Kennedy, with the active assistance of UME alum (13 or 14 yrs. spent as an undergrad!) Gov. John Baldacci: keep cutting teaching positions, keep adding administrative and athletics positions, allow landmark bldgs. like Stevens Hall to deteriorate while spending millions in public as well as private funds in renovating and expanding athletic facilities. That’s “the way should be,” and those corporate bigshots and publishers who love(d) Kennedy supported all of this, as did lots of supposedly pro-education legislators from both parties.
Believe me, there’s no value in fanning the anti-education sentiments in these mill towns. I get that you have some beef with UMaine, but if Madawaska has even a slim chance, it will be because some of it’s kids went to college.
I was being sacastic, not complimentary, not that that should have come through. Of course Madawaska’s students deserve opportunities for higher ed. But UMaine has indeed put athletics first and foremost, to the detriment of Maine taxpayers, students, and their families.
How many stories are we going to read about the collapse of the paper industry before people in these mill towns actually begin to believe them? The people in Lincoln, or Millinocket, or Old Town could certainly provide some advice to the people of Madawaska (or Jay or Bucksport or Rumford). on the issue of scaling back municipal budgets. i feel bad for the kids who are feeling the effects of this – they need options and cutting education and extra-curricular activities is exactly the wrong way to go. Education is the only way out of this dated reliance on single industry.
You make a good point about the paper industry. I live near Bucksport and they spend money like the mill (along with state and fed tax dollars) will always be there. However cutting “preseason” athletic programs makes sense. A school is meant to give children the knowledge they need to go out into the world and make their way. Preseason anything doesn’t fit that mandate. Nor does seasonal organized sports. Give the kids a field to play in, and I don’t mean a multi-million dollar athletic complex that rivals pro sports, and let them play on their own time. Leave the fields open all year. If parents want to organize competitive games then fine, let them. But…. lets be clear that this has nothing to do with the kids getting an education and such activities should not be funded with educational funds. That said, I would fight cuts to core classes such as math and science. Unlike sports such classes actually contribute to ones ability to earn a living.
This is more difficult than it looks because 5/12 of the fiscal year has gone by. They cannot recapture already spent monies. Contracts are legal entities. To eliminate jobs requires advanced notification so more time will be lost and more money have to be paid. It’s important to put everything on the table for discussion from class loads to bussing. The only place to get real money is in salaries and that takes them back to contracts. Good luck but don’t forget your kids in the process.
It seems that the problem is that the mill was given an unsustainable tax break yet everyone is upset with the school committee. How about asking the mill owners to support the town’s athletic teams? Also, will the schools be able to maintain their accreditation with such deep cuts?
The fiscal cliff at the lowest level. Although sports is an important role in the development of our children, the more important is their education. Your largest tax payer is still in operation and providing jobs to your economy. They have made a lot of concessions along with their employees to keep these jobs and your community alive. Now it is time to make the same hard choices that they have made. Stop using the children as pawns and get down to business. Ask this simple question of your citizens if we can’t afford these cuts can you afford a tax increase to continue as usual?
Did you know that Madawaska has one of the lowest mil rates in the state? 1 mil brings in about $340,000, so raising the mil rate just 1.5 more would bring in the money needed to close the $525,000 gap–save jobs, programs, and the students’ education.
Looks like the MPA will have to create another sports division just for Madawaska……….A B C D and now “F”…someone should stand up for these kids sooner rather than later….The town is “Failing” these children in a big way.
Madawaska has one of the lowest mil rates in the state. 1 mil brings in about $340,000, so raising the mil rate just 1.5 more mils would bring in enough revenue to fill that $525,000 gap. This would save jobs, programs, and the children’s education.
We are all doing with less these days, maybe it will put a focus on education..
Ask the teachers to take a pay cut to save their fellow teachers and see what response you get..
Ask the citizens to pay a little more in taxes and see what you get. Some citizens don’t care much about funding education once their own children have been through the system. Why should underpaid teachers take the hit? Every time workers in any occupation pay for others to keep their jobs it becomes the routine-it never ends. Do firemen get asked to buy new trucks, or police for new cruisers?
It’s a 525,000 short. This isn’t an issue that can be solved by skimming off the top of some salaries.
The rural communities in the St. John Valley are facing increasingly tough financial and budgeting issues. The shrinking demographics of the school-age population also does not bode well for the future. I find what is happening in Madawaska unfortunate, but in some way, I believe we all knew it was coming.
So, instead of mud slinging and community-wide fighting, I believe it is time for a real shift in how we, in the St. John Valley, administer and deliver education to students. I recently discovered that the size of the graduating class of 2018 in the entire St. John Valley, from Allagash to Hamlin, is approximately 170 students. Graduating classes of that size were not unusual in Fort Kent alone just a few decades ago. Yet, as our population gets older, as the tax base shrinks, and as the State funding for education dwindles, we continue to maintain a similar physical infrastructure, a larger human infrastructure, and a more expensive technological infrastructure in the Valley’s school systems. Clearly, something is going to have to give. It is a travesty that what often “gives” in response to these issues are curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular programs for students that are crucial to their development.
All educational practitioners, from early childhood educators to higher education, in the St. John Valley, and in other rural parts of the State facing similar issues, need to come together and work outside of traditional turf issues to figure out how we can achieve the same or even better educational outcomes by sharing resources, sharing teachers and expertise, sharing administration, blurring the lines between secondary and post-secondary education, and blending programming and educational delivery in such a way as to provide seamless lifelong learning in an efficient and educationally sound and forward thinking manner.
It is difficult to do. Many fear the loss of jobs or the loss of local control. My response to that is that we know we will face these job losses anyway in the very near future and the most important thing for the good of our community is to put students first in all of our educational planning. I also think we need to redefine “local” to mean not just Fort Kent, or Madawaska, or any other individual town, but to mean a local region that gains an even more stellar reputation of doing what is best for our students and for being wise stewards of the investment tax payers make in education.
Sounds like a good idea, but these schools aren’t lavish as it is. To ask that pool all resources, like teachers, is unrealistic. The St. John Valley is something like 80+ miles across and the distance between each of the schools is like 20 miles.
The Superintendent is leaving town, so I’m not convinced her recommendations are sincere. She won’t be around to see those kids suffer. I can remember back in the old days when Nuns taught grades 1 through 8 and Brothers taught grades 9 through 12. I’m sure they were not in the same pay scale as lay teachers that taught in the Madawaska school system. This was good for the budget and keep the maximum number of educators employed. The schools in Madawaska no longer have those option to work with. Madawaska residents pay a lower mil rate than most other towns in Northern Maine; the paper mill is paying a good portion of the taxes thereby keeping the mil rate low for residents. As in Fort kent, for example, Madawaska residents should get used to seeing increasing mil rates every year to maintain a competitive school system. Property valuations in Madawaska are not that high, with most homes assessed under $100K. The paper making industry is struggling and things are not going to get any better soon.
The kids always, always and I say ALWAYS get the brunt of EVERYTHING in Madawaska. Ask any kid and they will tell you there is nothing to do and if they decide to cut the sports then they will NOTHING for them to do. I know I lived there and finally moved out and I heard it from my nephews and I hear it from other children. And, they always scratch their stupid heads and wonder why the young ones leave the area. Go ahead and blame it on the paper mill but the fact the town doesn’t even let Walmart come into town. Saying it will take away jobs, they won’t let another grocery store, they for some odd reason they let Marden’s come into town. But the town mucky mucks don’t care. If they did they would let people come in and establish something people in that area even if they get paid minimum wage they are not happy but they make the best of it and live the best they can and are truly grateful to have a job. And, there should be something for the children to do. Oh that is right that is why they have the Multi purpose so they can go ice skating oh brats maybe they will close that too!
in this day and age and the economy the way it is, many of us are having to make reductions, including school districts..
Mon oncle Fraser has fallen on hard times. The culture of Mon Oncle Fraser was he had deep pockets, Mad-town was Boom town and on est toutes content. Fast forward to 2012, whoa, mon chum, mon oncle Fraser has been divorced and remarried a couple of times and the cash flow is not too healthy. Meanwhile the free wheeling spending budgets continue as if it was the good ol days. If the town and school choose to consolidate activities, buildings, bus routes, classes( I know 8 kids is a big classroom) and other non value added ‘stuff’, they will be fine. If they want to fight a dwindling income stream by not adjusting, this change will be seen as minor years down the road. It is not too late to change the road your on. Set your egos aside.
Maybe the biggest question you should be asking is what would you be doing if the mill were shut down completely? The mill is the largest source of tax revenue in the community. Then the taxpayers. Now ask the next question is how can the school department all of a sudden come up with the numbers that they have and then say that they can still provide the education that the students need? There are two things to think about. Here is an idea that you might want to ponder. If you can’t afford the extra curricular activities then maybe you could get the mill and some of your local merchants to sponsor them. If anyone thinks that this country is on the mend they should look again.