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School board fails to set budget, next meeting Thursday

10 mins read
A New Sharon resident asks the Mt. Blue Regional School District board at Tuesday nigth's meeting "why there are so many raises" n the budget.
A New Sharon resident asks the Mt. Blue Regional School District board members at Tuesday night’s meeting “why there are so many raises” in the budget.
Directors, from left to right:
Mt. Blue School Board directors, from left to right: Iris Silverstein of Farmington, Nancy Crosby of Weld, Tami Labul of Farmington, Kenneth Charles of Farmington and Angela LeClair of Wilton.

FARMINGTON – After more than two hours of discussion by the board and those attending the meeting Tuesday night, the Mt. Blue Regional School District directors failed to set a new budget as planned. An additional meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday to accomplish the task.

After a proposed $32.9 million was voted down by a majority of residents in the 10 towns of the district on June 14, the school board has been discussing additional cuts to various areas of the budget in an attempt to get something passed by voters. The tentative schedule is to hold the district-wide public budget meeting vote 7 p.m. Thursday, July 14 in Bjorn Auditorium on the Mt. Blue Campus and the validation vote held in all 10 towns of the district on Thursday, July 28.

The original budget proposed was up by 2.9 percent or a total increase of $929,273 above the current budget. A list was created by administrators which suggested more than $200,000 in reductions in a bid to lower the budget to or below an overall 2.2 percent increase. That, along with another $50,000 added to the $500,000 recommended to be appropriated from the carry-forward account, would result in eight of the 10 district towns receiving tax assessment decreases. The first budget proposed had four towns receiving a decrease.

At Tuesday’s meeting, which was supposed to set the new budget recommendation, began with Director Ryan Morgan of Farmington making a motion to rescind action taken at the last meeting to renegotiate administrators’ raises.

At that meeting, the district’s administrators voluntarily offered to take a pay cut to help reduce the budget, which would have resulted in a savings of $18,000. Those contracts had already been negotiated and signed. Directors moved to reopen negotiations with the bargaining unit.

In a reversal, Morgan said, “I urge the board to not do anything with the administrators’ pay; keep the contracts intact.” He added it would be bad precedence to do so and that it is not fair to the employees who negotiated in good faith. Director Nancy Crosby seconded his motion. By the weighted vote system the motion passed, with six directors voting to rescind and seven against. However, Superintendent Thomas Ward announced later in the meeting that according to a source the vote to rescind needed to be on the agenda to be legally binding within board rules and procedures, which it wasn’t. It also would have needed a two-thirds majority to agree to it, which didn’t happen. Last week’s vote to reopen contract negotiations stands.

Much of the meeting was spent discussing the various proposed cuts. Parents and teachers often spoke eloquently about student needs. An over-arching theme that emerged was that so much has been cut over the past years, that there is little left to remove.

A currently vacant World Language position at Mt. Blue Middle School has been proposed to be cut for a $48,000 savings. That cut would result in less foreign language instruction available as an elective to the sixth- through eighth-grade students. It also would shift more students to the allied arts classes, who would be seeking an alternative elective.

Lisa Dalrymple said she serves as “chair of what’s left of the World Language Program.” In her 17 years in the program, “there’s been a drastic reduction in staff, losing more than half. No program exists as it once did at the elementary level and now the middle school position is on the line, she said. Retired high school Spanish teacher Carol Perez said when she started teaching at Mt. Blue there was a language program taught from the first grade through 12th grade. She said the language program is important for a student’s well-rounded education and it “pains her” to see the program continuing to be cut.

In another discussion, Director Cherianne Harrison of Wilton attempted to cut the insurance paid on computer laptops but didn’t receive a second after the district’s technology director, Darcy Dunphy said the $24,000 in savings proposed would mean students couldn’t bring their laptop computers home. She noted the district actually brought in revenue through insurance claims and that the state’s “whole idea is to get technology into every home” and that the program is “generally cost neutral.”

In response to a question by Director Iris Silverstein of Farmington, Dunphy said in a survey taken, 92 percent of the district’s students said they had high speed internet access at home. The remaining 8 percent, which may have slower dial-up internet access, are offered after-school access and other opportunities.

Mt. Blue Middle School Principal Jason Bellerose said the computers are “tools not toys” and that they didn’t want to create a situation “of those who can and those who can’t” when it came to having a computer at home to work on homework.

Proposed cuts to special education also received impassioned responses from those attending. It was noted there are 70 ed techs in the district who serve the district’s 378 special needs students in response to a question of the number of one-on-one needs students asked by Director Keith Swett of Wilton. Currently, there are 16 ed tech openings to be filled and it was suggested that some of those be cut for savings. Not filling those positions would mean the district wouldn’t be compliant with state mandates, said Christine Shea, director of Special Education.

Parent Siri Stinson of Wilton, said the cuts to school programs such as music theater, art, sports and world language will only hurt students. With a special needs child, Stinson said, “I don’t think about her going to college.” She has potential, a different potential than perhaps the average student, she said. Her voice heavy with emotion, Stinson said her teenage daughter is cognitively at the level of a 16 to 18-month-old. It had been proposed at one time that she not have the one-on-one ed tech who helps her learn basic life safety skills. “That’s just not safe,” she said. “She is expensive but that doesn’t mean her education is less important.” She added that cutting programs is “short-sighted. Cuts are not as important as we’ve made them to be.” Many attending the meeting applauded.

A parent, David Fletcher of New Vineyard, wondered if sports programs can be reduced by students raising the funds to the support the programs themselves.

A total of $442,000, which doesn’t include transportation, is spent on athletics programs and co-curricular activities such as the music programs and theater. Director Betsey Hyde of Temple said 1,130 students participated on one or more of the activities. The suggestion that a pay-to-participate fee of $400 or $200 per student per activity would present a hardship to some families, she argued.

The concern is that “people who can pay can play,” said Director Nancy Crosby of Weld. Tami Labul of Farmington and Angela LeClair of Wilton gave examples of student-athletes who do raise funds for their teams.

“There are kids out there doing things; kids are fund raising,” LeClair said. Director Kenneth Charles said the total spent on those co-curricular programs amounts to 1.3 percent of the total budget. It was also noted that the parent volunteer sports and music booster programs raise $108,000 through fund raising and gate fees collected to support the programs.

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40 Comments

  1. Ugh, what a mess. My son is in the orchestra program and I hope his younger sister will be, too. We already rent the violin and he is in other music lessons outside of school, plus rec programs, etc. We are not dirt poor, but we can’t add more to our plate. Particularly when the change to our property tax burden would not be significantly reduced as a result. I also do not like the idea of cutting special services. Having been in elementary school in the 70’s, I am rather shocked by the number of special ed students we now have. However, it actually makes me wonder how many kids were in chaos back then due to the lack of services.Unless your child had something like Down’s Syndrome, they probably weren’t in a “special” class and they certainly didn’t have a teacher’s aide. If you observe a class with students who have challenges that exceed what the teacher can handle in order to serve the entire classroom, you would see just how much ed techs are needed. Mrs. Stinson’s child absolutely should have a public school education in whatever form that takes. I do not want to live in a world where her child and other kids like her are not provided for by the public school system so I can save 50 bucks (or whatever) a year in taxes. I find the near loss of a foreign language program heartbreaking. I took French for years and years through public education. Those days seem to be over.

    I guess my only concern is that our children are really USING everything we are paying for. My son gets a laptop this year as he enters 7th grade. If he doesn’t really need it for homework as I’ve heard some say–if it is more toy than tool–then that’s the kind of waste that concerns me and I’d be the first to raise that issue.

    I don’t have the answers, either. But I do want to say how much of an impact my son’s teachers have had on his academic life and self confidence. They have helped him achieve his goals. He works hard but he has their encouragement and extra help when things get difficult. I couldn’t ask for more. And they sure as heck don’t check out at 2:00 pm and spend the summers off. Plus thanks to the constant curriculum changes over the last decade, they are re-learning as they go along, too. So THANK YOU to the teachers for all you do. Please don’t let the divisiveness of these meetings discourage you. There maybe some taxpayers without children who think our kids don’t deserve what they get, but most of us know you are a huge force in their lives.

  2. So sad.

    A once great school district being destroyed by petty people trying to save a few bucks on their property taxes.

    “The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.”
    – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  3. It is sad. And thank you Ryan for wearing the man pants.
    Some administrators have been paid at the lower end of the scale for years. It seems their one chance to reach some semblance of parity is being taken away even after they have signed a contract. That is not only wrong it is despicable. I hear people of substantial means complain about these hard earned raises and it sickens me. They have not a clue what it takes to do the job these folks do everyday. We have a Maine State Principal of the Year at the Mallett School. And some say she does not deserve a raise. You want a second rate school district that will not attract the people that this town needs to thrive, than take away the raises, tear up the signed contracts and demoralize the very people who educate your children and provide hope for our future.

  4. I agree this situation is sad, however, I can’t believe the above comment that people are trying to save a few bucks on their taxes. Petty? Really? We all know it is not a few bucks we are talking about, it is a lot of bucks. Quite frankly, I’m fed up with the increases we’ve seen over the past 5 yrs. Enough is enough, cuts are necessary. Hopefully it can be resolved and I respect that it is not an easy task for all involved.

  5. @taxpayer Going by the numbers a $929,237 increase divided among the entire population of the 10 towns would equal to $54 dollars per person. So yes in fact we are talking about a few bucks….

  6. Last year I had to take a new course required by the state called Special Education Law. Dr. Cavanaugh did a great job of reviewing the history of our country’s special education laws. He made us watch films of the conditions children and adults were put in to keep them away from society. It was horrendous, in-human, and disgusting. We have come so far from those days and I am so grateful.
    The law now requires that all students be educated to their fullest potential. This has allowed many students who were stuck in a corner the chance to blossom in school. My youngest daughter has a friend from college who is in a wheelchair, can’t use her arms to write, and has to have an aide help with personal hygiene. In the seventies she would have been put in an institution and left there. Today she has a bachelors degree in chemical engineering and is in a doctoral program doing research in chemical engineering. Her research may save your life one day-all because she was allowed an education!
    So if you haven’t been in a school for other than a concert or a ball game since the seventies or even the nineties, you might want to go visit. See that all students are being given an education and help to thrive. It is not easy work, it is not inexpensive, but the transformations can be amazing.
    And if you think cutting the special education budget is an easy fix, I would suggest you review the State of Maine hearings and cases against school districts that have not provided appropriate special education opportunities for their students. You may save $50 on your taxes this year, but you will pay ten times more in the future, if the school district is found to be in violation of state and federal laws. And our administrators will be spending all their time with lawyers and not helping our children.

  7. My children have played sports every season through our local Rec programs – the same sports offered by our schools. And recently the softball program put in a rule that if you are a certain age & play for a school softball team you can’t play Rec softball – so why don’t we use our rec programs for 8th grade and lower? There are a few non profit sports groups in our community for sports not offered by rec or school programs in those grades too such as Mt Blue Area Youth Football, the Mt Blue Rec Cheering & a local summer cross country program. We can still let our kids enjoy the sports they love while cutting our school budget yet supporting our local sports & rec programs.

  8. As a follow-up to my last post, I would like to make a proposal. While I applaud the public interest in our schools, I think we all need to sit down and have a conversation, not a yelling match or an us vs. them fight, but a real conversation. Lead by our community experts to explain what the laws are, why things are costing what they are costing-an opportunity to educate the community with the chance for real discussion and ideas to come to the surface. And those ideas to be researched and reviewed to see if they are possible.
    This would be hard work, not something that can be done in a week or even a month, but worth the investment of time. And all parties need to be included and participate.
    I have lived in a school district that was at each other’s throats over school budgets. It made the community and its school system the laughing stock of the area-no businesses wanted to relocate there, families left for better school districts and housing prices dropped dramatically. We do not need that here, we need to work together, because frankly we are all we’ve got!

  9. Can we please stop saying ” we are on a fixed income”. Because everyone is on a fixed income! We can’t walk into our bosses and ask for an increase just because gas prices go up or our taxes go up. We all learn to live with the increases that happen in life.

    If our school board feels they have put in the proposed cuts necessary then send it to vote, don’t keep cutting just because you think you have to…..

  10. During the last 5-6 weeks I have spoken to maybe 45-50 members of the school district and their supporters.
    Some of the conversations were casual and professional, but many were emotionally charged. I learned that
    I hate the schools and hate the children and hate the teachers, and I’m greedy too!!! Each and every one of the
    School supporters and staff had the same idea to fix our problems. We must raise the state sales tax, and we
    Must vote to place a special 3-4% tax on every person in Maine who makes over $200,000 per year and we
    Should raise the cigarette tax and start a new tax on junk food. The millions of dollars generated will go to the
    Schools and every teacher will get raises and all administrators can have the 6 figure incomes that they deserve.
    The state of Maine has had stagnant population growth, maybe population loses, for years and years. Many
    Businesses have closed or moved to southern states where the environment is much more business friendly.
    We have brutal winters, high energy prices, very few young folks to work in our businesses because they all
    Run to the southern states with the good jobs. The school supporters want to raise taxes or enact new taxes
    on everything to fix our budget problems. I wonder how the current and future business owners will view our
    State. Business friendly??? I don’t think so. If you think things are bad now, wait until we raise all those taxes.
    My suggestion. Our country and this state have become nannies for every one who wants to lay around and
    Enjoy life. Young single adults can have EBT cards and rent assistance without lifting a finger. Foreigners can
    Walk into any large city in Maine and get immediate assistance. Drug uses get free rides, and rent, and free
    Methodone at the many clinics. Anyone with an EBT card (about 40-45%of our state population) can buy beer
    Or wine or hard liquor, cigarettes, candy and junk foods, lottery tickets, and bus tickets to the gambling casinos
    Where they use the cash portion of their cards to gamble. Our governor has been trying very hard for 5 years
    To stop this stuff but about half of our legislators vote no every year( I’ll let you guess which political party). I
    Believe that our legislators finally got rid of tattoos and bail payments during this winter’s welfare battles in
    Augusta. Hurray!!! Tell your local legislator to stop all this crap and use the millions generated to fund our
    Schools. Forget all those new taxes!!! Maybe some businesses will start to move back, and hire people. The
    Young adults who graduate in the future may stay here and work and raise families and pay taxes. How about
    That idea????

  11. To those saying sports can be done through the rec programs, remember your rec programs are paid for by your tax dollars. Moving from one to the other saves nothing. If sports are cut at the school level I’m sure it would be very difficult to get more funding to the rec departments in the town budgets. It should not be an option to cut programs all together, I would personally pay to play and help with a scholarship program for those who would find it difficult to pay. Getting creative with sports funding options may be needed.

  12. If people are sick of their property tax rates going up how about venting to our state legislators who could ensure that the State pays their legally required support of schools instead of beating up on teachers and administrators . I understand that the State portion of education spending is being underfunded by the legislature to a tune of about 7 percent. That would go a long way to reducing property taxes.

    Any legislators out there that know if the State is funding education as required by law?

  13. When we purchased our home in 2010 our property taxes were 1,200 now they’re about 2,000 and we currently have no children in school. Our house payment was 739 a month now it’s 989. One of lost our jobs in the last year too. A few bucks each year adds up! Did we honestly need a 65 million dollar high school? Let’s keep increasing taxes and force families out of their homes because we can no longer afford them.

  14. This years proposed budget, which went through months of public meetings and development, would have reduced property taxes overall for this school district. It failed, some said because of “Big Raises”

    As of Tuesday night, some cuts had been made, and the group with the “big raises” had volunteered to reduce their raises. If a budget is proposed this Thursday night, at yet another public board meeting, the tax cuts for the district will be seen in 8 of 10 towns. TAX CUTS IN 8 of 10 towns.

    If the proposal calls for tax cuts in 8 of 10 towns, I will vote yes.

    “Property Tax” ready to vote for a property tax cut? vote for the budget that may be put forth on Thursday night, if it cuts taxes in 8 of 10 towns, I know I will.

    And talk to you legislators.

  15. I will try to post this again.
    For those that say 54 dollars is not very much ( and we are being petty ) then why don’t the people who want the increase make up the difference?
    How much would that be? Around 125 dollars? Still seems like a bargain for those that want the kids to have all that the district is asking for.

  16. There is a portion of the community that no longer have the ability to work. For whatever reasons they can not get a second job, go to school and better their opportunities, work overtime or any of the other ways people can increase their income.
    Old age, physical or mental challenges can take away most or all options to increase income.
    No, not everyone is on a fixed income. Why do think the taxes are being raised??????? Raises generally increase income.

  17. I have said in the past if we dont want to take from the kids take 1 or 2 furlough days
    We did it in the past for support staff only well how about a furlough day from the top person down to the bottom
    Everyone in the district should be able to afford one day without pay a year
    The state has furlough days to make up their loss

  18. Mike Deschenes first says here, “Some of the conversations were casual and professional, but many were emotionally charged.” This is precisely what I’ve watched Mike Deschenes do in public meetings regarding the budget. Grandstanding, filibustering, accusing. Pure emotionally charged grandstanding.

    He later goes on a non-germane emotionally charged rant here saying, “Young single adults can have EBT cards and rent assistance without lifting a finger. Foreigners can Walk into any large city in Maine and get immediate assistance. Drug uses get free rides, and rent, and free Methodone at the many clinics. Anyone with an EBT card (about 40-45%of our state population) can buy beer Or wine or hard liquor, cigarettes, candy and junk foods, lottery tickets, and bus tickets to the gambling casinos Where they use the cash portion of their cards to gamble.”

    What’s clear is that there has been a lot of emotionally charged (unprofessional, un-adult-like) rhetoric, namely coming from Mike Deschenes, as demonstrated here by his own written comments.

  19. taxpyeraswell
    June 29, 2016 • 3:00 pm
    @taxpayer Going by the numbers a $929,237 increase divided among the entire population of the 10 towns would equal to $54 dollars per person. So yes in fact we are talking about a few bucks….

    @taxpyeraswell: $54 per person is assuming every man, woman, and child pay taxes… this is a false statement at best! If you use the two monetary figures that you have provided then the population of the towns in this school district is 17208 people rounding to the nearest whole number. Now if you figure the average household consists of approximately 4 people and you consider the number of rentals that locals occupy then your real total is approximately one fifth of the population. This makes the new total 3442 households paying nearly a million dollars extra or an exact amount per household of $269.97. Maybe in your world that is a few bucks but in mine and many others that is the difference in eating for a month, medications for a month if your lucky, or even a light and phone bill for a couple months if your conservative with those resources.

  20. There is something very important that a lot of readers don’t know, or if they do know, they haven’t given it much
    Thought. Our school system had a $750,000 surplus from last year, due to mild winter and a freeze in spending
    In the spring. The administration applied about $500,000 of that to this budget. Our district also received about
    $300,000 from DHHS for special needs kids, and another $250,000 from the state legislature in a special session
    Funding bill. That $250,000 was a surprise gift from our state and we may never see it again. Those three
    Amounts, which total over $1,000,000, were applied directly to the local towns. This is why the taxes are going
    Down in 8 of 10 towns. The actual school budget is up over $900,000 again. This is our 3rd or 4th year with
    Million dollar increases. We may never see a surplus from a previous year and a special gift from the state
    Legislature again. Please don’t let this one time decrease in taxes to the 8 towns fool you. The budget is up
    Again. Most of the school districts around us had flat or negative budgets. If they can do it, why can’t we do it.
    Enough is enough. Please think about this logically. We can’t keep going up and up every year. This area can
    Not support these constant increases. Now let’s talk about the pay raises for admin. I have been accused by
    My neighbor, who is an excellent teacher and dedicated school supporter, of trying to hurt the poor custodians
    By asking for cuts in maintenance. If she had attended any of the town meetings, she would have seen me
    Question our administrators at the New Sharon meeting about the 10 cent per hour pay raise for those people.
    That equals about $208 per year for the people who do the hardest and dirtiest work. I was very upset that they
    Got a $200 annual raise, but the principals of every elementary school and the foster votech guy got a $9,200
    pay raise and the high school principal got $7000. I am 100% for the custodians raises, and 100% against the
    Admin raises!!!! I have a question for every reader out there. Do you know anyone in this area who got a
    $9200 pay raise last year, or this year, or any year???? I don’t. One thing to remember also. These are not
    Lower level employees. These are the highest level employees who already make $75,000- $89,000 per year.

  21. Enough, already. I am a retired widow. Our children need the best possible education we can give them. Let’s stop the hot air, accept the school budget as is and get on with our lives. Direct your concerns to your state legislators. They are the ones who have not lived up to what we voted for.

  22. It is true that the legislature is and has been underfunding education by 7%. So yes we should push our politicians to provide the funding that has been promised for years and LePage should be leading the charge but he won’t. I will call my reps. tomorrow and I will chip in an extra $54 beyond the volunteer work myself and my family do for the district. It is clear that the students, teachers and administrators need all the support they can get. And they deserve it.

  23. Actually I pay my Rec program for each sport my child plays and when we have needed jerseys we have done fundraising and asked for sponsors. So yes I agree, we should turn to our local sports programs.

  24. Mike, LePage is a nationally known embarrassment. Any credibility you might have goes out the window when you hold him up as the answer to our woes. He accomplishes nothing because he is angry and unable to work with others. He punishes everyone when he doesn’t get his way.

    I vote to ignore grandstanding, let the board do its job, and move on.

  25. Ask yourself honestly, ‘how important is Spanish in my day to day life?’ You probably use it as much as you use algebra. If immigrants were made to learn English as our forefathers prescribed 99.9% of us would have no use for Spanish. (If you are one to look further into the future maybe consider Chinese instead of Spanish.)
    Mike is spot on concerning EBT. When I was a child my mom had to use food assistance for awhile. Powdered milk, eggs, etc. and it was horrible. But we grew up healthy. I don’t recall the government handing out candy bars and soda. And thanks to my mother’s pride and work ethic we didn’t have to eat that crap too long.
    It is no coincidence businesses and our ambitious young are flocking to ‘red’ states such as Texas and the Carolinas. Maybe we should try to vote for people that will eliminate roadblocks to business instead of ones worrying where a transgender can go pee….

  26. Renters Do Pay Property Taxes. Just indirectly. Every property in each town has an assessed value that is used to calculate the total valuation of each town. Some of these are non-taxable properties such as religious and educational institutions, and municipal properties. These are deducted from the total valuation and the resulting amount is used to calculate the tax rate given the approved spending for municipal, county and education budgets. The resulting tax is then apportioned to every taxable property in each town. Thus every taxable property owner pays taxes for the municipal, county and education budgets, including property owners who rent living spaces.

    If you own your property you pay your bill directly to your town. If you are a renter your taxes are paid by your landlord. They are part of the rent paid. I am certain that as taxes go up so do rents. Please do not continue to pick on renters as not paying their share, and do include them in your calculations. These folks are a vital component of every community.

    @Nancy Allen, who said, ‘I would like to make a proposal. While I applaud the public interest in our schools, I think we all need to sit down and have a conversation, not a yelling match or an us vs. them fight, but a real conversation. Lead by our community experts to explain what the laws are, why things are costing what they are costing-an opportunity to educate the community with the chance for real discussion and ideas to come to the surface. And those ideas to be researched and reviewed to see if they are possible.’

    I absolutely agree with your proposal! This is what we teach our students in RSD9 and what we adults need to practice. Research, discuss, and propose viable solutions. Education of what comprises a budget and why it needs funding is crucial to this debate. And it should be presented in writing so all folks have access, rather than at one of multiple budget hearings. A tall task for the budget developers but worth the effort in the long run.

  27. I am a teacher and a local tax payer. When you’re on the inside of this situation, you see the great needs in the classroom. Our science and social studies books are more than 20 years old. We went for the free math program, that requires teachers to spend huge amounts of time running off the student papers, not to mention the cost of all that paper.

    Years ago the state changed the definition of Emotionally disturbed to Severely emotionally disturbed. Suddenly, all those kids are not in Special Education and are in the regular classroom, blocking the education of the majority, that will soon be our next generation of workers and community members. Then there’s the students with behavior issues that qualify for our newly created program. Their needs are great, and when they come into the classrooms, even with an ed. tech. for support, plus the other group of emotionally disturbed students – it’s awful what we have to deal with. We need more counselors and badly.

    So, when you cut the budget, and increase class size, you don’t know the damage you are doing. When we have classes of about 18 students, we can give them the attention they need. We nurture the students and help them with their emotional needs, because we care so much. When you give us elementary classes of 22 and up, it’s very difficult to teach and take care of their emotional needs. Those who don’t know, would say, forget their emotional needs, and teach. When you care, you don’t turn your back when people need help.

    I spend 20 bucks a week on snacks for my students. I put the snacks out and they come over like hungry birds and grab it all. It’s so sad. Many of these poor students are raggedy and emotionally hurting more than you know. You’d cry if you knew the damage you were doing by always pushing to decrease the budget.

    The real problem is that education should not be funded through property tax. I don’t know how we can change that, but that’s really the problem. The community shouldn’t be fighting the budget and face off against teachers and our schools. They should be fighting the way the schools are funded. It should be illegal for the state to not fund education. If our kids were mostly children from minorities, we’d file a law suit and win. We are a very poor district, with so much less than other schools in other parts of Maine and the US.

    Don’t turn your backs on our children and our schools. Get mad at the right people, and change the way we fund education.

  28. Taxpyeraswell – I wish I had your math savy! Only $54 if spread amongst the 10 towns that does sound quite petty. However my taxes have gone up over $1500 in just two years. Not $54 per year as you suggest.
    I have children in the school system and even have a spouse that works in the school system. I’m not alone in saying that cuts need to be made, the last couple years I’ve had to cut a lot in the household budget to offset property tax increases. I’m obviously not alone.

  29. Just a reminder…

    The school budget has gone up because of State and Federal Regulations increasing. As those regulations go up, the State and Federal government recognize that there has to be a way to get financial compensation for those increased demands. So, they create ways to bill the State and Federal government for those increased programs.

    Which is why RSU 9 now has the capability to get “Revenue” back from billing Mainecare. So although the overall “BUDGET NUMBER” has gone up. THE TOWNS ARE SEEING CUTS TO THEIR YEARLY PORTION. If your tax bill is going up, it’s not because of RSU 9.

    RSU 9 is doing their part to bill the state for all the programs they can. And when they qualify for financial relief because of a new program, they make sure to get their t’s crossed and their i’s dotted and all the forms in. Which is why we have anything in our schools for revenue.

    How many times do people have to say, “All the towns are seeing a decrease in their taxes with the current budget.”? Because the schools are able to bill for all these programs that cause the budget total to go up. 8 out of the 10 towns are actually seeing NEGATIVE numbers going to their towns. Only 2 towns are seeing an increase, which is less than they have seen in years past, and that is because of TOWN EVALUATIONS. Not the RSU 9 budget.

    If you support reducing your taxes, than you should be for this budget! Lord help you if the schoolboard starts thinking your NO votes were because you wanted to do even more for our children and that clearly the tax reduction that they were providing meant nothing to you.

  30. Maybe we should try to vote for people that will eliminate roadblocks to business instead of ones worrying where a transgender can go pee….

    That’s a disgusting thing to say. Unlike the way some people choose to be ignorant, people do not choose their gender.

  31. There should have been quotes around the first sentence attributed to Capt Plantet. The second sentence is directed toward Capt Planet

  32. @taxpayer/teacher-there was a reason the definition was changed years ago. It was changed to reflect the reality that too many students were automatically put into special education just because they had behaviors. So, in fact there are not classrooms full of emotionally disturbed children blocking the education of other students. If they do not qualify for special services as a student with an emotional disability it is not fair to say they have one or treat them as though they do. There are many successful students with behavior problems that learn in the general education classroom, it is up to the teachers to implement effective classroom management plans for them. It is their right to be in the general education classroom even if they do qualify with an emotional disturbance. They have a right to be educated in the least restrictive environment possible and that means general education teachers need to do their part to help them be successful….it can be done.

  33. Thank you Kathryn Woodsum! I knew renters paid rent in some way but it was never clear to me how. Every year now our subsidized rents go up. When the total rent goes up, we have to pay more rent. Mine just went up $11 dollars and have not received any Social Security increase over a year and half… It is very hard on a fixed disability income to live and am a senior so that is even worse. Can not have a car as do not have money to support it. Would not be able to sit so long any way in meetings but if I could, I would. I pay close attention to the local news/regional and national news and know what I vote for when I do. I was a teacher years ago and I had 22 kindergarten kids and no help at all. Before I became unable to work I was an Ed Tech and helped teach developmentally disabled adults life skills. It was the most rewarding job I had ever had. This population does and can learn. I know. I saw it. So I vote for Special Ed any time I can. As well as Adult Ed. These are very important to me and close to my heart. I will no longer feel guilty for voting again. I was beginning to feel I had not done the right thing, but I knew inside I had. I request an absentee ballot and if I do not know some thing I look it up or I do not vote for it. Period. We all should be well informed and not just say whatever to or against some one. Seems to me that is coming close to bullying the public.

  34. @Nancy – I work for the State of Maine. They did away with furloughed days in DHHS several years ago.

  35. Stay strong tax payers. People need to stand up and fight off the ever increasing taxes. Every time you turn around they want more. These people need to realize most of us don’t get raises every couple of years, let alone raises of thousands of dollars like some of them do. Property taxes are becoming ridiculous in some areas because every year town and school budgets just keep going up and up. The people have had enough and it’s time to make tough decisions about what isn’t needed, cut it, and move on. I’m tired of all the boohoo me, me, me, my child this and that.

  36. Property Tax – your taxes didn’t go up at that rate because of the school system. You were probably under assessed or made improvements to your home. Real Estate taxes have not climbed at the rate you posted. If you are going to post try and be more factual and think about all the factors that cause real estate tax increases.

  37. There are people who don’t know what it’s like to struggle financially and those people have no right to sit in judgment of those who are. It’s easy to think you would be able to stretch your dollars and people aren’t being wise about the choices they make, but if you haven’t actually lived it, you have no idea what it’s like.

    No votes are not votes to increase classroom sizes or cut funding for text textbooks. No votes are no, we can’t afford it. The school board, under advisement of administration, is deciding where to make the cuts. And for those of you who are saying the increased budget decreases property taxes, really? How is that even possible? Look to the future, how will the increases this year affect you next year? Yes, the State should be properly funding the schools, but let’s make that happen BEFORE the budget is increased.

    Lisa, disregarding the facts and theories Mike has presented because he supports the Governor’s mission to reduce waste is silly. It’s like saying you won’t listen to what someone has to say because they are wearing a green shirt. A point is a point and it shouldn’t be ignored just because you don’t agree with a different point that was made.

  38. Mike Deschenes, you seem very passionate about these issues. Though I disagree with almost all of your assertions, I think the times when you present your case in a calm and rational manner is good for discussion. Might I suggest after this budget passes (one way or another) you make a run for a school board director position next year? The stipend is $15 per meeting and the countless hours spent on trying to change things from the inside might have an interesting outcome.

  39. Worth a repeat here: Property taxes will go down by more than $200,000 in this district starting this fall. This will be the first tax decrease in how long?

    A bird in the hand. Start in October to figure out how to do the same for next year.

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