FARMINGTON – After 150 minutes of budget discussion on Tuesday night, at times driven by a member of the audience, the Mt. Blue Regional School District Board of Directors asked the administration to recommend reductions for the next meeting on Thursday.
The board is in a second round of the budget review process after voters rejected a proposed $32.9 million budget on June 14 by a vote of 1,518 yes votes to 1,655 no votes, a difference of 137 votes.
On June 1, nearly 270 residents of the Mt. Blue school district’s 10 towns set the $32,973,180 total, which is a $929,273 increase in expenditures above the current fiscal year, or approximately 2.9 percent.
Superintendent Thomas Ward suggested at Tuesday’s review session a goal might be to reduce the budget to a 2.2 percent overall increase with an additional $50,000 added to the dedicated $500,000 carry forward funding account to help offset the impact on the district’s property taxpayers. If achieved, the reduction will result in eight of the 10 towns seeing a tax assessment reduction. The two towns with increased tax assessments are Starks and Weld because of recent tax revaluations.
The proposed $32.9 million budget rejected by voters a week ago showed an increase in assessment to six of the 10 towns of the district.
Some of the budget discussion on Tuesday night focused on questions the board members emailed to administration to clarify aspects of the budget such as how the sports boosters operate and its contributions to the teams through gate fees and concession sales, a list of revenue-producing entities within the district such as Foster Tech’s skilled students’ work in the community and where that revenue goes and the district’s food services balance forward. Both the Boosters and the tech center’s put their revenue streams back into student program needs, uniforms, and sports equipment. The food services carryover is expected to be about $200,000 at this fiscal year end and is money used to cover unexpected expenses in food services, such as freezer that broke down at Mallett School that needed to be replaced.
Resident Michael Deschenes of Farmington brought a list of cuts from the transportation and maintenance budgets. Jonathan Chalmers, director of facilities management, read through each line item of the budgets stopping for questions from Deschenes about what the budget item entailed and why the amount was so high.
An hour into the discussion Director Craig Stickney of Chesterville made a motion to set the budget total at $32,043,907, which is the current fiscal year’s total budget. Four directors Strickney, Nancy Porter of Farmignton, Ryan Morgan of Farmington and Keith Swett of Wilton, voted in favor while the remaining 11 directors voted against it.
Director Cherieann Harrison of Wilton called Stickney’s motion “show boating” and said “it’s irresponsible not to do our work. Flat funding is not responsible,” she said, noting the current budget doesn’t allow for negotiated teacher salary raises the district is obligated to fund, along with the increase in students entering the district in need of special education also contained within the proposed budget.
Chalmers returned to reading each item of his budgets. At 8:30 p.m. Swett asked “are we accomplishing anything? Are we working toward our goal?”
“We wanted to start with transportation and maintenance because we heard there was $400,000 in savings there. If you see a line where we can save, you should say so,” Ward said.
Deschenes spoke up and said it was he who had met with Chalmers six weeks ago with a list of cuts. “A lot of things I wanted cut, he cut,” Deschenes said. Every school but one has seen a reduction in the maintenance lines in the proposed budget which was approved by voters at the June 1 budget meeting. After going through line item by line item of Chalmers’ budget draft, nothing was brought up by directors for possible reduction.
Other residents questioned such things as the new phone system at Cape Cod Hill School costing $28,000. Chalmers explained that five new lines were brought in to replace the old system. Included are phones to all the classrooms, an emergency communications system and message recorders.
Director Morgan, an electrician, said the cost “was not out of whack” with today’s prices for that kind of service. “Basically you have a whole system rewired,” he added.
Deschenes questioned the surveillance camera and drain clean out at Mallett School that pushed the budget from $300 in the current budget to $17,737 in the proposed budget for the work. The work, Chalmers said, was required by the Department of Environmental Protection to have certified inspections, and a camera to view if there is sediment blockage. There is, he said, so the drains will need to be cleaned out. If they aren’t the school may face flooding events.
Lawn care, which has been contracted out for $49,000 a year was also called into question. Years ago custodians used to mow the district’s school lawns, but that was replaced by outside companies doing the work.
Chalmers said he looked into the cost of purchasing equipment and the idea of having existing staff take over the work in order to save money, but found they wouldn’t have enough time to do the work they currently do, so more staff would need to be hired. It was noted that it was a savings, historically, to contract the work out. A three-year contract was negotiated last year with a lawn care company.
Director Iris Silverstein of Farmington noted the board had already gone “through the cost centers with great diligence” and asked the administration to make recommendations on where to cut the budget. “I’d like to accelerate the process,” she added.
Ward said it was important to spend time discussing the proposed cuts.
“We need input from the board. We hear ‘we’ve got to reduce, we’ve got to reduce,'” he said.
At the meeting’s end, the board voted to have the administrators of the district provide a list of possible reductions be presented. Ward said those recommendations will be available at the next budget meeting, set for Thursday, June 23 at 7 p.m. in The Forum on the Mt. Blue Campus.
The set the budget process timeline with Tuesday, June 28 the tentative date for directors to set a proposed budget. If accomplished, the district-wide public budget meeting vote was set for 7 p.m. Thursday, July 14 in Bjorn Auditorium on the Mt. Blue Campus. The validation vote to be held in all 10 towns of the district again could then be held on Thursday, July 28.
While sitting in on this meeting, it became apparent that RSU 9 has no protocols/policies/checklists to ensure that contracts all go out for multiple bids and that employees check around for the best price when making purchases. It appears that employees are on their own. This is public money (our tax money) and close monitoring of spending is absolutely essential. Government offices all have strict protocols for contracts and purchasing, why doesn’t RSU 9? In addition, the current version of the budget that the community recently voted on apparently does not exist. There is only the draft budget from March at the town offices. The superintendent’s office copy of the budget is the draft March budget with pink sheets in the front of some of the sections listing increases, though I was told some of those increases eventually got applied to the budget while some did not. Meanwhile, cuts made to the draft budget where listed on a separate paper in a file folder that was finally located. Consequently, an hour or so of last night’s meeting was spent reviewing cuts to transportation and maintenance in order to clear up confusion some had and show that those cuts had actually been applied to the budget. Had the budget been updated and made available to the public when it was finalized there probably would not have been any confusion! The budget is an electronic document which makes updating easy, so there is no excuse for this. The district and board complain that the public does not participate in the budget process; perhaps they should make it a little easier.
I would like to thank Jonathan for his professional attitude during the hour long session of questioning last
Night. I met him for the first time about 7 weeks ago when we had a meeting to review the spending in the
Maintenance section of the budget. There were many areas of that initial budget that I felt could wait another
Year or two. And I was very concerned about several large no bid contracts that our school system renews
Each year. Jonathan gave me a copy of the 8 page document and I estimated that about $400,000 could be
Saved in that section. Last night I learned, for the first time, that Jonathan had cut many of those items from
The budget and he started a new process of multiple bids on the larger HVAC contracts. He said there will
Be more savings coming from these changes. I want to thank him for his hard work. RSU 9 did well to hire
This man. Keep up the good work Jonathan. Hopefully Dr. Ward will present us with some needed cuts in
The administration budgets on Thursday. And maybe a hiring freeze on all Ed techs too. We have plenty
Of them to go around. Let’s use what we have for now. I appreciate the school board members who have
Been professional when chatting with me. Lindy has a very good point in her comment. I had a meeting
With one school board member to discuss the cuts I wanted to see in the maintenance. That meeting was
5:30pm yesterday, just 1.5 hours prior to the school board meeting. We discussed my $400,000 in cuts and
We debated those cuts for about an hour. She also did not know that Jonathan had already submitted the
Cuts in maintenance.
Yes, LINDY, dead on target! A responsibility of the School Board is ” Provides for the dissemination of information relating to the schools necessary for creating a well-informed public.” While no time is specified for this to happen, you’d think this information would be up-dated and made available for public viewing before the next important meeting relative to the issue. It was disappointing to see School Board members from New Vineyard, New Sharon,Temple, Wilton, and Vienna vote at Tuesday’s board meeting against the wishes of their respective towns’ voters as determined on the June 14 referendum vote!
Waiting to see when the cuts in administration will be coming. I think we all know the answer.
Reviewing the contracts for Admin, Teachers, and Support Staff on the district web site: Admin has a two year contract, teachers have a two year contract, and Support Staff has a three year contract.
We should honor the contracts, and negotiate fair new contracts when the time is right to negotiate new contracts.
Buckshot…are there any regulations that Directors vote in the manner their town voted???
If not, there should be.
Hi Mike Deschenes,
There was such a shortage of Ed Techs last year some of the UMF students were called in to help in the local classrooms…maybe you should do your homework before making these suggestions. Ed Techs is a profession and we are currently short of them in RSU 9…maybe send your “plenty to go around” to the local elementary school programs.
Thanks,
concerned citizen
Nancy, board members are bound to ” Endeavor at all times to see that schools have adequate financial support within the capabilities of the community ”……so it becomes the board member’s responsibility to look at his town’s unpaid tax lists, to look at liens placed on peoples’ properties, to listen to citizens’ complaints,and to interpret the votes cast in elections as representative of the town’s ability to pay its’ share of the school district’s budget. When a town’s money is used primarily for schools, and when the municipality suffers, and when taxes continue to increase each year due to mismanagement, I say it is time for board members to start listening to the voters or then it’s time to restructure the board!
To concerned citizen:
I spoke directly with a high level employee at the Maine Department of Education and he told me that the
State recommends a staffing level of 1 Ed tech per 19.2 students, and RSU 9 has a staffing level of 1 Ed
Tech per 11.1 students. He said we have a lot more Ed techs than the state recommends. I asked a school
Board member for a count of Ed techs. She said they are spread all over the district and it is difficult to get
An exact count but she thought there were about 95-100 Ed techs. How many do you need???? Do we
Need an Ed tech in every class??? Do we need an Ed tech in all the high school classrooms??? Where
Is the limit???? Will 200 Ed techs make you happy???? Just wondering where we stop with hiring???
I would suspect one of the reasons we have such a high ed tech number is due to the fact ed tech’s are used as a cost cutting measure. For instance the district only has one librarian and the rest are “ed tech’s”. Ed tech’s are are generally hired at half or a third of the cost of a teacher and usually just under the required time to be considered full time thus no benefits. I have witnessed teaching positions cut to be filled by ed techs. It would be interesting to know how many ed techs are in this kind of role and are actually saving the district money.
Could someone fill us all in on the degree qualifications of the Ed Techs? Are they all certified teachers?
And I believe we just replaced a retiring middle school principal with a new contract starting shortly. Can you tell me if the salary increased or decreased. Enough said. We all know the answer.
@Mike Deschenes – If Ed Techs (rather than teachers) are a cost savings initiative, you should be pleased not enraged. You seem to feel you have such a fine grasp of SAD9’s operations and shortcomings, why haven’t you served on the School Board or have applied to become the District Superintendent or Superintendent anywhere? Clearly, your vast managerial knowledge and breadth of educational experience would be super-valuable to us all.
Mike , I would like to know what kind of qualifications you have to be proposing so many changes and cuts ? Do you have a background in running school districts that I am not aware of ?
How many of our schools have you visited to see how important Ed Techs are and how very much they are needed. We have high numbers of students who have educational needs that must be met. The state saying they recommend 1 Ed tech per 19.2 students is not in reference to a specific district but a general suggestion. We have the ed techs we have because they are needed to provide required services. ( Look up special ed LAWS- Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA is the federal law governing grants to states to ensure that children with disabilities (age birth to 20) are identified for timely evaluation and if eligible, provided appropriate services in the least restrictive setting.) ED techs are often used in one on one situations or small groups with students who MUST have this level of support. They often work having most of the responsibilities of teachers for much less pay. They ARE needed and valued members of our school community. Marian is also correct. Teacher positions have been cut and filled as Ed Techs to SAVE money for the district. We have the Ed Tech we have because we need them. Come visit summer school Mike, maybe you can gain some understanding of the real situation.
How many bus driver/janitors have you followed around to see how efficient they are in their work?
All the janitors and bus drivers in our district work exceptionally hard. I have watched them at work in every school in the district. Their jobs have been made more and more difficult because of cuts. I see them sweating as they move as quickly as they can from room to room, bathroom to bathroom. I cannot imagine anyone doing their jobs more efficiently than they do. They all take great pride in their work which has become increasing more difficult. If anything they are under paid.
As for administrators.You should try chasing one of them around for a day. Make sure you wear a fit bit for tracking activity because they are always on the move, solving problems and wearing many hats! They are educated and trained to do very important work. They carry great responsibility and work exceptionally hard. They EARNED degrees and have knowledge and expertise that is needed in the school district. The salaries that they are paid in our district are reasonable. We have quality administrators for a fair price. Can you get people for less, perhaps, but believe me there are cases in this State that due to mismanagement and poor administration schools have “gone under” or are barely surviving. I am proud of the work that our administrators do to fulfill state mandates, evaluate teachers, run buildings, handle crisis situations, lead professional development, work with parents and students, create complex schedules….I cannot begin to list all that they do, it is a daunting task. They are a very dedicated and hard working group who are trained and well educated.
Funny, the administration wants and asks for the public to come up with suggestions for cuts in the budget.
When someone takes the time to lay some out, Your Neighbor wants credentials.
Funny, I made it through 12 years of school just fine without the help of any ed-techs.
Mike doesn’t need qualifications to make suggestions. When the budget was voted down supporters lashed out saying people were voting No without making suggestions to cut the budget. Reap what you sew.
Thank you for your defense of the maintenance staff and current number of Ed Techs. A rationale discussion is necessary to resolve the budget. Please spare us the attacks and stick to the facts.
@Wondering. There are minimum requirements to be an ed tech set by the state. I don’t remember the requirements for an ed tech I but in order to be certified as an ed tech II you need 60 college credits and as an ed tech III 90. As stated earlier this is the minimum required. And if your wondering what 60 and 90 credits mean it generally equates into two and three years of college. Most of the ed tech’s I know have a degree and even a few have a masters. So what does this mean? Well it differs from a teacher in that teachers must have credits in what they are teaching whereas ed techs just need that college experience. I believe the last budget proposal cut some elementary teachers to increase classroom sizes and add an ed tech to assist the larger classes. This has happened in the past as well and the most notable with the librarians. So it would be interesting to know how many ed tech positions within the district replaced a teaching position.
And just for the record, I am all for saving money if replacing a teaching position with an ed tech makes sense as long as the replacement has the qualifications for the job being asked. Also, I am not at all suggesting that we do not have qualified ed techs. In fact just the opposite. I think it takes someone passionate for children and education to have the qualifications needed to be an ed tech and work for an hourly wage.
Suggestions are fine Amanda. Personal attacks have been made against administrators and Ed Techs. The sign Mike put on his wife’s lawn listed names and was a personal attack. Just asking for qualifications and standing up for the hard working employees in the district. If you can dish out attacks you need to be ready to clarify questions about your own competence. A school budget and the welfare of students involves a certain amount of knowledge. Knowing the laws that govern education would be a first step.
The links below are reasonable sources to use to become better informed on what the the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) entails. IDEA codified the right to an education for individuals with disabilities because we, as a nation, had previously denied these individuals any chance at an equitable education.
The site is a resource for anyone, but especially for parents.
http://www.parentcenterhub.org/repository/idea/
http://www.parentcenterhub.org/repository/schoolage/
It would also would be good for community members to look into how our schools are funded. The way we fund education makes it difficult for property owners in rural Maine especially in the current economy. Until this is addressed and changed these struggles and conflicts will continue. This is way of funding not chosen by our school board or our district employees. It would be good if we could all work together to make some changes in a proactive way. I understand that people budgets are stretched and many have no more to give. It is a very difficult and stressful situation for all.
You know, if people would just stop breeding this whole situation remedies itself over time.
Why are there attacts on administration? When the public perceives that things are a bit “slippery”, hidden, underhanded, or whatever you want to call it, it becomes angered. It directs this anger at the suspected cause. This may not be the correct thing to do, but it is a reaction to hurt. Be cautious when trying to move an injured animal, such as a dog hit by a car, it may bite you. Not the same, but a reasonable comparison. People out here are hurting, but nobody seems to realize that fact! IT’S ALL ABOUT MONEY!
This narrow minded thinking, hostility and hateful personal attacks are setting an example for all the students served. The students notice and they aren’t impressed with the sign. They look up to Dr. Tom. Good luck not getting egged during Halloween. It seems to me that most of the people who are spewing nonsense need to go back to kindergarten to learn how to behave like decent human beings. Could we add a line item in the budget to pay for those in our community to learn how to act like professionals so they can become people our kids would respect, admire and eventually learn from? This penny wise approach is pound foolish. Dr. Ward works very hard to turn around our schools into something to be proud of. Don’t invest and see what you get. Increased poverty, increased unemployment, drugs, no jobs, frustrated employers and the list goes on. The same people slamming those working hard to turn things around will be the ones complaining about high costs at the jail. Reap what you sow. Maybe we can even increase the percentage of those leaving for better opportunities. Get a clue people, no one is beating down the doors to come to franklin county.
@ Maineiac: You are fortunate you did not require an Ed-tech when you were in school. The Ed tech’s are needed for keeping track of kids with Autism and other disabilities. I was just speaking to a teacher from another district who recently retired early because she was expected to teach a class of 18-20 kids and also deal with a child with autism who had behavior issues and would take off and leave the building. I cannot imagine how stressful that situation must have been for that woman. I live with a child with autism and I know how hard the Ed tech’s and bus drivers work. My taxes went up and I agree that we need to try to cut the budget but we need to put some serious thought into how we do it. Personally, I feel that the teachers,ed tech’s,bus drivers and custodians that have to deal with our children directly should not be included in cuts.Many people do not understand what they have to deal with. If anyone deserves salary increases,they do.
One would think by reading the comments from supporters that they are getting no money at all! The majority spoke, make do with what you have gotten.
How anybody can think that spending more than they already get is somehow going to ” fix ” the issues facing the community is not thinking clearly.
The reason people are not beating down the doors to get to Franklin County is not because the school is low grade, it is due to the fact that old houses that are basically in such poor condition that they are a liability are taxed beyond realistic proportions. In other words, for most people a large portion of real estate is not worth the price of the taxes, let alone the initial cost.
Mt. Blue is one of the fanciest schools I have seen.
I may be a narrow minded thinker but I travel a lot and I notice things like that.
Try being grateful for what you have rather than always wanting more, better, best.
Let’s ask a real estate professional. What the first thing professionals look at when moving to an area (including businesses)? Not the corner store. The quality of the school system. Ask the hospital how important this is when seeking a medical professional for hire? Maybe we should let Dr. Ward get back to business where he can focus on the work he needs to get done with students as opposed to dragging him and his staff through the mud. The average household grosses how much and what percent is taxes? I hardly think taxes are causing homes to be in disrepair.
I have sat on the school board since February. I have run the gammet of emotions during that time – from extreme suspicion to being proud as anything. I’ve lost sleep, I’ve received back-stabbing comments, and I continued to go to meetings, sit, listen, comment, and “do the job” I was asked to do. I’ve spent hours and hours going thru numbers, comparing 2015-16’s budget to 2016-17’s budget. I’ve questioned spending, I’ve questioned lots of things. And I’ve been treated like a leper by other Board Members. So be it.
I have learned that waste is tolerated.
I have learned many, many of the teachers really, really care about the kids.
I have learned some teachers could care less about the kids. It’s all about the paycheck.
I’ve learned that there are a lot of people who feel it’s okay to keep asking the tax payers to pay more, more and more would be wild if I put my hand in their pocket and stole their wallet and credit cards. That’s theft.
They’re right. It would be theft. So what’s the difference? There seems to be a very fine line between Legal theft and illegal theft.
I;m wondering if schools went back to using books, instead of computers if that would save any money? I don’t know. But the schools must have to pay a computer tech to fix things when the computers break down. The other thought is that if schools returned to books it might help paper mill workers be able to keep their jobs instead of letting Apple or Microsoft make money. Just wondering
If children learn by example I think it best to teach them to live and spend within their means.
Not everyone grosses enough to continually pay more and more in property taxes.
This kind of attitude ( Here we go again… ) teaches children to pout and demand more, and if the district doesn’t get their way it’s all the taxpayers fault. ” if only we had that 2% more, just this year. If only… ” it sounds to me like typical addictive behavior. The state and federal is no different. ” we can fix it, if only we do one more study, one more tax “
Here we go again… Yes, ask a realtor schools are very important and a driving force.
Mr. Ward himself stated at one of the meetings that the reason he is here is NOT for the money, but the quality of life.
There are very few ” professionals ” looking at Franklin County for career moves. Most of the jobs here of that caliber are tax funded, schools, city, county and yes the hospital.
Franklin County consists of mainly service orientated jobs and wonderful people.
I love paying my taxes. I think I get great services. But I don’t like paying for something just because someone like you bullies me into saying so. I think the district gets enough money and there is too much waste. That is my opinion based on what I see. I don’t think I am alone.
Mr. Ward seemed like the type of person that if he didn’t like his job he would change it, simple as that.
My opinion is that school athletic programs at this point ( since academics has gotten so expensive ) should be parent funded, private.
Yes, athletics are VERY important, BUT when one only has so much money to go around it is a matter of priorities.
If you want it all, just ask a real estate professional, I’m sure they can sell you something somewhere that has it all.