ROCKLAND, Maine — The chairman of the Rockland area school board says the district is in a financial bind, in part because of actions taken during the past year by several board members that led to St. George withdrawing.
St. George’s withdrawal means Regional School Union 13 will lose $1.7 million in revenues for the upcoming school year. Coupled with $557,00 less in state aid because of the governor’s proposed budget and less money from MaineCare reimbursement, the remaining RSU 13 communities — Rockland, Thomaston, South Thomaston, Owls Head and Cushing — are facing a dramatic increase in property taxes for 2015-2016.
Emotions were running high Thursday night as Superintendent John McDonald presented his proposed 2015-2016 budget of $25.9 million. He earlier presented the board with a $27.3 million budget but stressed the first draft contained all the funding requests of administrators from each school.
The superintendent’s proposed budget calls for eliminating three teaching positions at the high schools because of reduced enrollment. His budget would add an assistant principal at the South elementary school in Rockland and add a gifted and talented teacher for the district.
Despite being less, his budget also calls for an additional $3.2 million to be raised in property taxes by the five remaining communities of RSU 13. Rockland would have to pay an additional $1.7 million, Thomaston $518,000, Cushing $505,000, Owls Head $285,000 and South Thomaston $207,000.
During Thursday’s meeting, school board member Esther “Tess” Kilgour criticized the budget as unacceptable because of the tax hikes. She said the district needs to consider merging its two middle schools and consolidating its two high schools as one way to save money. She previously also questioned why Rockland should be in RSU 13.
Board Chairman Steve Roberts responded quickly to Kilgour’s comments.
“We were all elected to the board to make RSU 13 a success, not to make it fail,” he said.
While not naming specific board members, he said the financial crunch is because of actions taken by the board during the past year.
“How many board members had a callous approach to St. George and did nothing to keep them in the district,” Roberts said. “Every action has a consequence.”
Superintendent McDonald criticized the repeated speeches by individual board members, which he said serve no purpose but having the board discussion go around in circles. He said if the board as a whole wants to give him direction on a policy, it needs to vote on that. Roberts agreed, saying a board member who wants to achieve a goal needs to make a motion and have the board vote instead of simply give a speech.
“It’s time to quit the politicking, saying ‘I’m smarter,’ ‘I know more,’” Roberts said. He said if this board was the board of a private enterprise, the members would have been out of their jobs.
McDonald’s proposed budget does not call for the consolidation of the middle schools or high schools. Roberts said the superintendent is still in the information gathering phase of that possibility. Board member Donald Robishaw Jr. pointed out that two years ago, Roberts called for such consolidation.
Board member George Emery said RSU 13 should be the poster child for how consolidation can save money. He said the problem is not with spending, which is less than what the two separate districts — SADs 5 and 50 — were spending before the merger in 2009. The problem involves the loss of revenue with state aid going down, requiring property owners to pick up the difference, he said.
The school board will next meet Monday night to continue its budget review.