[Updated 2 p.m.] The MSAD #58 Board of Directors have arranged a special meeting for Tuesday, June 2, 2015 at 7 p.m. at Mt. Abram High School.
SALEM – More than 100 residents of MSAD 58 effectively defunded their school district Thursday evening, as the long-simmering dispute between the Mt. Abram Teachers Association and the district finally boiled over.
Attendees wasted no time turning the meeting from the $9.4 million budget proposed by the school board to the issues raised by the association in a Declaration of No Confidence issued yesterday. Teachers and Ed Techs in the district overwhelmingly supported the document, which called for a “critical re-evaluation of [MSAD 58’s] leadership direction” due to the district being in “crisis.”
After an introduction to the budget by Luci Milewski and the swearing in of moderator Paul Mills and the ballot clerks, the Regular Instruction article was immediately amended from $3.33 million down to $1. Given that the board had decided to ignore the input of professional educators and implement their own agendas, Christina Mitman said after making the motion, regular instruction in the district could be paid for with $1.
The vote to fund the Regular Instruction article was 67 in favor and 49 in opposition. While those attending the meeting would proceed through all 18 articles, discussion moved from the budget, which included $192,000 for a new pre-Kindergarten program, to the rift between educators and the school board.
Issues raised by teachers, or those advocating for the teachers, included subjects that have been discussed before: the longstanding contractual disputes between the association and district, the use of a Portland-based lawyer to assist the school board with negotiations, and questions about other financial items, such as pay-to-play athletics. The most consistently-leveled accusation by teachers, however, was that the school board no longer supported or respected educators within the district.
“Last year, I got up here and said we’re coming to a cliff,” teacher Steve Mitman said. “Folks, we’re over the cliff.”
Comments by educators echoed the Declaration of No Confidence issued by the association yesterday. That document, which had the support 93 of 94 educators as of Wednesday evening, blamed an “unprecedented exodus of staff members at all levels; administrators, teachers and ed techs,” the declaration reads. “Not only is the cost for filling these positions putting a significant burden on the budget, it’s not clear that quality replacements will be available while the conditions that are driving staff away remain in place.”
Four administrators had previously announced they were leaving the district in the past few weeks: Superintendent Erica Brouillet, Technology Manager Angel Allen, Business Manager Luci Milewski and assistant principal/athletic director James Black. Thursday evening, Brouillet indicated that a fifth administrator, Mt. Abram High School Marco Aliberti, was also resigning.
Additionally, Brouillet said that a candidate to fill the technology manager position had decided against coming to the district. The school board had approved a $10,000 increase in that position to $75,000 in a bid to draw the qualified candidate.
A number of speakers at the meeting urged those involved in the district’s disputes to work together. Marc Edwards of Strong, who said the school in Strong was what drew his family to the area, questioned the impact of the protest vote and dispute on the education of the district’s students.
“We really need to look at what we’re doing to this district,” Edwards said.
Sophomore Brandon Haines, who said he was sunburned after three days of protesting in front of Mt. Abram High School, and that he knew there were “wonderful” people on both the school board and association.
“We see these two groups of wonderful people at each others throats,” Haines said, asking both groups to sit down and “try and meet in the middle.”
Neal McCurdy of Kingfield got a laugh when he asked both sides to take some of the money spent on lawyers, “buy some shovels for some of the teachers and the school board and go bury some egos.”
In addition to the unresolved teacher contracts and rapidly diminishing pool of administrators, another issue facing the district is a renewed push by Kingfield to discuss withdrawing from MSAD 58. Selectman Mervin Wilson pointed out that his town had set aside $20,000 to consider the idea. Kingfield currently pays more than a third of the local tax assessments for the district.
“Do you think this creates any more confidence in the district?” Wilson said, addressing the $1 protest votes. He asked that the meeting simply be adjourned after Article 2, which deals with the Special Education cost center, was also set at $1.
However, moderator Mills said that the meeting articles did need to be disposed of before a motion to adjourn could be entertained. Residents moved quickly through the warrant, approving $1 for all articles except Article 10: Debt Service, which was set at the recommended $255,955, and Article 15: Pre-K, which was set at $0. Those in attendance advised against cutting debt service even temporarily, as those funds are used to pay off debt for school projects. As recommended, Article 15 would have raised $192,033 in one-time, start-up costs for a pre-K program. Milewski said that the program was expected to more than pay for itself by the second year.
The overall budget was set in Article 14 at $255,964. That represented the debt service payments plus $14 in protest votes.
Several voters questioned whether the confirmation referendum scheduled for June 9 would need to be held. It is believed that the school board can prevent an effectively meaningless budget meeting result from proceeding to referendum. A new meeting will be required to set a budget capable of supporting the MSAD 58 through the next fiscal year, which begins on July 1.
