RSU 50 OKs budget, referendum is Sept. 7

  STACYVILLE, Maine — Voters in southern Aroostook will be asked to go to the polls for a second time on a proposed RSU 50 school budget. A district-wide referendum is slated for Wednesday, Sept. 7 in the various communities which make up the regional school unit.
    A group of 73 residents approved an amended budget Aug. 24 at a special district meeting held at Katahdin Area High School. The amended budget calls for an additional $60,000 above what the RSU 50 board was recommending, bringing the total district budget to $9,039,646 for the 2011-12 school year.
Should this fiscal plan also fail at the polls, the school board will have to go through the entire process again, until voters approve a budget. Since the new school year begins today (Aug. 31), the district will be operating under the budget that failed at the June 30 polls until a new spending package is approved.
“This [meeting] is just one step,” said Interim Superintendent John Doe. “We still have a lot of work to do informing the communities about the district budget validation and to encourage them to support this budget.”
RSU 50 comprises the communities of Crystal, Dyer Brook, Hersey, Island Falls, Merrill, Moro, Mt. Chase, Oakfield, Patten, Sherman, Smyrna and Stacyville. Back on June 30, voters in those communities rejected a $9,267,716 fiscal plan at the polls by a vote of 301-402. The failure at the polls forced the board to come up with a revised budget, which it did by slashing an additional $250,000.
Among those cuts were: three teaching positions at Southern Aroostook Community School and one at Katahdin Elementary School. All four were elementary positions that were currently vacant in the two schools. Those positions include a kindergarten vacancy, fifth-grade vacancy and sixth-grade vacancy all at SACS and a third-grade vacancy at Katahdin Elementary School. A gifted and talented vacancy was also proposed to go unfilled.
None of those cuts involved people losing jobs, according to Doe. He also added he was not caught off guard by the amendment to add money back in to the budget as he had numerous visitors to his office on the subject in recent weeks.
“I had a few phone calls from people asking if we had an open or closed budget,” Doe said.
A closed budget only allows for decreases to the proposed fiscal plan, while an open budget allows increases or decreases to any of the warrant articles. Neighboring SAD 29 and SAD 70 both do closed budgets at their meetings.
Dick Spencer, of the law office of Drummond Woodsum of Portland, served as moderator for the evening. Spencer, who has a specialty in the area of school laws, was hired by the RSU 50 board to serve in this capacity for the meeting. When asked how much Spencer was paid for his services Aug. 24, Doe said he did not have the figure readily available.
Smyrna resident Russell Beauchemin proposed amending the budget to re-instate the gifted and talented position. The amendment was not unanimous, with 34 in favor and 23, including many members of the RSU board, opposed.
Beauchemin explained some of his reasons for the amendment in a letter to the Houlton Pioneer Times in today’s issue. (See page Four B)
“Understanding that the RSU 50 board has sole authority for determining where and how funds are expended, in my motion to amend the budget I asked the board to consider reinstating funds for the gifted and talented program (GT) as well as providing additional resources for English,” Beauchemin wrote in his letter. “The state encourages all districts and RSUs to have a GT program. In fact, the state reimburses the RSU through the EPS funding formula for approximately 100 percent of the prior year’s expenditure. Last year we were reimbursed at 101.6 percent of what was spent on GT in FY10. Should the RSU fail to fund a GT program, we will lose the state subsidy for GT. In my view, this is not in the interests of our students or taxpayers.”
If the voters approve the budget Sept. 7, the RSU 50 board will have the final say on where the additional $60,000 will be spent for regular education. The board could also choose not to spend any of the funds and simply let them fall into the surplus account for next year.
Most of the communities in the RSU 50 district will see a tax increase once the school budget is passed. The increase, however, is not due to the district spending more money than last year. RSU 50 will receive slightly less in terms of state funding, and will have to come up with more local money in order to receive that state funding in its 2011-12 budget. The district will receive $4,744,949 from the state, a decrease of nearly $278,623, and also losses $161,928 in federal stabilization funds and adult education reimbursement.
The required local share for the district in order to get the full state aid is $2,386,779, an increase of 2.5 percent. However, because the district is spending more than what the state says it should for “Essential Programs and Services,” additional local funds are needed from each of the communities to balance the budget. That additional local figure of $1,154,918 is up dramatically from last year.
To help reduce the tax impact, the district has proposed taking $400,000 from its surplus account.
Prior to the voting session, an informational gathering was held to explain the proposed spending package. That session lasted just under 13 minutes, with few comments or questions from the public.