LIVERMORE FALLS – The RSU 73 school board discussed whether or not to adjust the district’s cost sharing formula Thursday evening, amid the uncertainty swirling around the Verso Paper Co. mill.
As part of the RSU 73 school consolidation plan, the cost sharing arrangement for funding above the state’s Essential Programs & Services model was to be revisited five years after the Jay School Department and MSAD 36 districts merged. Currently, the district uses valuation to divide the above EPS costs among the towns of Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls.
Bill Stockmeyer of the firm Drummond Woodsum provided the board with information about the process to change the formula, and what a more complex cost sharing formula could look like.
RSU 73 had a budget of $18.6 million last year. Of that, $1 million was paid for through miscellaneous revenues and the majority, $15.5 million, was raised through the EPS formula. The state sets an amount of money it believes the district can operate upon, $15.5 million, and then provides subsidy to augment the local allocation.
Like most school districts, RSU 73’s budget requires funds beyond the EPS model. The $2.3 million above EPS is divided among the three towns per their state-assigned valuation. Currently, Jay has 75 percent of the district’s valuation, and therefore pays 75 percent of the $2.3 million. Livermore and Livermore Falls have 14 percent and 11.5 percent of the valuation, respectively.
Most districts in the state divide above EPS costs in accordance to valuation. A “significant minority,” according to Stockmeyer, use some combination of valuation and pupil count; most of those that use pupil count still weigh their cost sharing formulas toward valuation. Only one district in the state, Stockmeyer said, based around the city of Bath, uses a third element: valuation, pupil count and population.
Adding pupil count to the cost sharing formula would shift some of the above EPS cost out of Jay and into Livermore and Livermore Falls, because while the pupil count is closer together among all three towns. Jay has 45 percent of the district’s students, Livermore has 20 percent and Livermore Falls has 35 percent.
Stockmeyer used a two-thirds valuation/one-third pupil count formula as an example. Under that hypothetical formula, using the current fiscal year’s budget, Jay’s school taxes would decrease by 2.5 percent, while Livermore’s would increase by 2.1 percent. Livermore Falls, with its relatively low valuation and high pupil count, would increase by 11.7 percent.
The biggest unknown, both Stockmeyer and board directors agreed, was the future of the Verso mill, which has represented a significant source of both Jay valuation and local-area jobs. The mill shut down two machines last year, Verso has filed for bankruptcy and was previously granted $230 million property value abatement.
Studying the issue, Stockmeyer used a 30 percent loss of property valuation in Jay, along with a 30 percent reduction in pupil count, to create a hypothetical situation. In that case, he said, the district’s EPS allocation would decrease by $2.2 million, offset somewhat by $200,000 in increased state subsidy for Livermore and Livermore Falls. That would mean that $4.7 million would need to be raised above EPS in order to maintain the same budget.
While the budget could be somewhat decreased without losing services due to the lower pupil count, Stockmeyer said, it was difficult to perfectly follow changes in enrollment with cost cutting.
“The reality is, there are a lot of unknown factors weighing on the town,” Board Chair Denise Rodzen said.
The board could alter the cost sharing arrangement with a super-majority vote; a majority of the entire, 13-member board, rather than a majority of those in attendance. It would also require at least one director voting in favor of the change from each of the three towns.
If the board opted not to utilize the five-year clause in the consolidation agreement, changing the formula would fall under the purview of state law, Stockmeyer said. In that case, either the board or 10 percent of the voters within the district could petition to form a committee made up of three representatives from each town. That committee would approve a plan that would be presented to the voters of the district.
Typically, a simple, district-wide majority vote would be required to enact the new formula. If a rare, third element were to be proposed for the formula, then the local consolidation agreement requires that any two towns also provide majority support.
The school board has a subcommittee discussing the proposal to change the formula.
Time to cut the cost above EPS ( 2.3 million ) for our school district. Folks we are losing equity in our homes and some people their homes because of our taxes. I will not vote for any school budget that has not made an attempt to stabilize my taxes. I hope all the taxpayer of the three towns will do as well.
I agree, Tom White. The days of the frills and feel good classes should be gone and basic education taught. Hopefully more citizens will wake up and encourage the school committee to get down to basics. Of course they will say”but it is for the children”.
Nell,
Care to elaborate on the “feel good classes?”
Nell, I agree. “Feel good” classes should be eliminated and costs should be managed within reasonable limits. We cannot afford the waste and we cannot afford to lose our homes to pay for an out of control system that wastes money. I am as cheap as they come. That being said;
If basic education means reading, writing, and rithmatic and somehow frills are confused with critical thinking skills, than I disagree. Today’s society needs more than adding, writing in cursive, and reading Edgar Allen Poe. Today’s society needs to be educated to understand how to cross reference my oil filter at the parts store. Workers need to be able to understand that two seven dollar items should not cost $56.00. My Pharmacist, I hope, should be able to understand that a conflict might be dangerous. I want my banker to understand how interest rates work. I even want the public works director to be able to make a responsible decision how and when to manage our roads for public safety.
I don’t know how to accomplish this without spending money and I don’t know how to keep the budget low enough to afford doing it when we know we need education. I do know that businesses falling onto rough times do the worst when they cut research and development in a changing marketplace and continue to produce filaments for incandescent light bulbs when the markets are going elsewhere. I like to think of education as research and development. Its an investment; maybe one that we can’t afford. Maybe one that we can’t afford not to have.
If we are teaching our young members of society to be skilled paper makers, I’d be skeptical. If we are teaching students in our schools to use typewriters, I’d be skeptical. I do believe that the computer skills the schools teach will be obsolete in ten years, but I also believe that Edgar Allen Poe will never cook my cheese burger to perfection.
So what do we teach our kids? What do our schools focus on? What is important for their future? How much money do we invest in our schools (not too much I hope).
My only suggestion is this. Lets not educate our children. If you want your children educated, do it yourself or pay to have it done. It’s not my responsibility to educate your kids. Unless of course, they are part of our society. We NEED to educate our society. They are our future.
Our educated society is going to change your oil, make change at the store, fill your prescriptions, help with our bank loans, and decide when to plow your roads. I hope they all have critical thinking skills. I’d pay for that.
So Nell, I agree with you. Let’s cut out the frills. Let get into basic education, lets just be sure what basic education is; it’s not the not the Nun smacking your knuckles with a ruler.
Oh, and by the way, when they say “It’s about the kids”, disagree. It’s not about teaching kids, it’s about living in an educated society.
Here is a perfect example of a waste of money.
We paid a lawyer to explain the EPS formula. That should be easy enough for the superintendent or bookeeper to
explain.
Your EPS state funding is determined simply by your pupil count. Each school system simply raise by taxation a certain mil rate based on your valuation. That eps mill rate is determined by the state and the same for every town. The difference between this amount raised by the EPS statewide mil rate and the EPS funding total is picked up by the state. Then anything a district wants to spend above this EPS figure is picked up locally without any state funding.
So, when Jays valuation goes down, the district will end up getting more state funding for the same number of students. The amount above this EPS number will then be split locally. Since Jays valuation will be down, the towns of livermore and livermore falls will be picking up more of this percentage above EPS.
Simple enough to understand. Should not have had to pay lawyer fees to explain it.
Here’s another thought.
We need teachers in the classroom, with 16-22 students in each class. And we need one reasonably priced principal in each school
After that, justify every single employee — beginning with Admiinistration, assistant principals, coordinators, and every other fancy title out there. Then justify every non classroom teacher.
Thank you
Taxpayer too. I am all for educating our youth IF it is accomplished. I don’t feel that our contributions ( taxes ) are being untilized to that end. Ask a local student about world, state or local news. Ask what is currently being discussed in the news. Ask what the capital of New Hampshire is. Buy something and ask them to make change. Ask them a few simple questions on the history of the United States. Ask them to write a letter to their grandmother. I went to school with 20 to 30 children in a class through out my school years. One teacher stood and taught the class. I am not a trained teacher but feel we need to have a solid base of knowledge before attempting other disciplines. Now back to taxes. Myself, like many of my neighbors, am at the limit of what can be paid. If the spending continues there willn’t be any children to educate because families willn’t live here because of high taxes. I realize some programs and some people will be eliminated. But my first responsibility is to my family and home.
Just to be clear there are definitely places that we can cut in the school budget! However,I am amazed that nobody seems to ever complain about a town budget that is 2 to 3 million more that surrounding towns. And every year we just pass this darn budget without hardly a question. Our town office has twice as many employees as other town. Take a look at the highway garage when you drive by some towns employ 3 or 4 on their highway departments we have at least 10 vehicles parked at the town garage daily! My hope is that people in town will vote down any budget over 4 million! And yes that is still 1 to 2 million more than a lot of towns but it is a start. If I remember right our town budget was more than Farmingtons last year and far over neighboring Livemore Falls! So people need to wake up and vote this budget down!!
Our town employees are paid substantially more similar workers in surrounding towns. Bring their salaries back to where they should be. If they don’t like it, then they can go work for a surrounding town
I agree. Time to cut both municipal and school budgets. Vote no to any increases in your property tax. Interesting fact. Towns were only formed to educate the youth not to be an employer of people.
It would be nice if the general public was involved in the school budget.
Try going to a school committee meeting when there is only room for 20 people.
That tells me that the public is not wanted.
O yes you can stand in the hallway and try to hear what is said inside.
If you are lucky to get a seat inside you are all most sitting on each other.
You wonder why some people don’t want to be on the committee, if you sit close to the front you will hear what is said but others can’t hear, the speakers are in low tone.
I ask why did the committee have their meeting on the same night as the Jay budget meeting?
The school committee doesn’t want to cut their budget.
We should all vote the budget down till we get a lower and fair budget.
I agree taxpayers.
The jay town budget is over the top.
The 200-ish of us who voted against this debacle in the beginning would like to welcome everyone else to fiscal reality. This RSU was pushed through by political elements who were unwilling to face the reality of our dwindling financial base and uncertain future. The empty threat of “fines” from the Baldacci administration was used to back us into a corner. Now, as the days of reckoning are upon us, we still seem stuck on basic mathematics.
I still maintain, as I did before the merger, that the town of Jay has ample resources to provide an excellent and well rounded education to our kids, with or without Verso Paper. We are just not willing to do what it takes.
Instead of the question being “how to we take care of other towns’ kids?” there must come a point where we revisit the idea of each town providing for their own. This may not be a popular notion, and may seem outrageous to some, but I have a feeling more of us will arrive at this conclusion as the years go on.
Amen, Jason!!!! And thank you Taxpayer for pointing out the very obvious poor choice of locations for school board meetings. I’m glad a few of us are awake. Keep talking and speaking out about this. It seems the DB is the only place we have a voice.
I agree with you Jason. One problem is the school board members have the guiding principle that they are to make decisions for all kids in the district- not just the town they represent. Superintendent’s love to make sure school board members know this as well as individual parents who do not want change (for whatever their motivation) use this “code” to work in their favor. All for one and one for all ..until you look closer at the unfairness of cost sharing on valuation only. This is an archaic formula that worked when we were vibrant with mills. Do not rely on your school board members or Superintendent to change this cost sharing formula. Note the underlying tone that this discussion was “revisited” or required. Even if the school board members from Jay are for this.. it will be interesting to see if the school board members from the other towns would agree to ask their constituents to pick up more of the bill. You will need a revolution of some sort…
@ Revolution
I know some of the Jay board members are for changing the funding formula. I was at the meeting and the 2/3 valuation and 1/3 student population size made some decent sense and cents. You’re right though, with an affirmative vote needed by at least one member from the other towns, it’s doubtful it’s going to get changed.
It seems the board chair is in the “don’t change it” camp. Which wrangles all the other newer board members to her camp.
It’s tough to have consistency when there has been such a turn over on the Jay side. I think there’s only one that’s been there for the entire RSU existence?
We should call the superintendent and have the meeting locations changed. Although, the last time they had one at SMMS, barely anyone showed up.
I’ll be calling my Jay board reps and asking them to do at least a 20% reduction in the budget, right off the top. Then start looking at areas that can be cut even further.
But the cost sharing formula only comes into play when you spend over the EPS formula. The school committee must control costs at the administration level which is where you get all the savings withe a combined school system. I’m all in favor of a combined school system as there should be savings. You must just find them and make the tough decisions.
And furthermore, the town of Jay must control costs in its budget. The town of Jay spends more than the town of Livermore and Livermore Falls combined.