Teaching cuts questioned in SAD 70

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    HODGDON — Tempers flared at Thursday night’s district budget meeting in SAD 70 as voters wrestled with approving a $6 million spending package for 2010-11.
    About 20 residents turned out to weigh in on the budget. At $6,039,424, the sum represents a decrease of $190,205 (3 percent) from the current year’s budget. Last year’s budget was down $140,000 from the 2008-09 figure. Therefore, over the past two years, the district has shaved $320,000 from its bottom line.
    The budget, which was approved at Thursday’s meeting, will now be put out to a referendum vote on June 8 for voters in Amity, Cary, Haynesville, Hodgdon, Linneus, Ludlow and New Limerick.
    The district is receiving nearly $300,000 less from the state next year. Of that amount, $93,000 is a fine levied on the school district by the state for its failure to join a consolidation group, per state law. The district has been in discussion with SAD 29 to join RSU 29, which would consolidate central offices and create one school board between the two districts. SAD 70 will continue to be fined, in increasing amounts, for each year that it does not comply with the school consolidation law.
    To balance the budget, SAD 70 is seeking $615,229 in additional local funds
    Much of the discussion centered around the school board’s decision to eliminate two teaching positions — one at the elementary school and one at the middle school. The cuts did not result in individuals losing their jobs. Instead, the reduction is from attrition as four teachers retired, but only two of those positions were filled.
    Board Chairman Estela Lane served as moderator for the budget meeting and explained that because SAD 70 has a “closed” budget, and as such individual amounts in each warrant article could only be reduced, not added to.
    “With a closed budget, you can decrease, but you cannot increase,” Lane said. “We do that so we do not put more tax burdens on anybody. We have worked long and hard on this budget to be fiscally responsible, while trying to keep the programs that we have for our students.”
    Brenda Griffin, an elementary teacher at Mill Pond School, gave an impassioned speech to the school board urging them to reconsider not filling the elementary teaching position.
    “I know you have worked very hard on this budget,” Griffin said. “Your job is to make sure that all of our children get a fair and equitable education. I am talking tonight on behalf of the [elementary] teachers and I want to emphasize the need for another teacher in our district.”
    The district was considering a consolidated kindergarten/first-grade position to help bridge the gap, which could have children ranging in age from 5-8 in the same classroom.
    “I know our state calls for 20 students in a classroom, but they are not counting the behaviors that are coming our way,” Griffin said. “I recommend that we vote this budget down and add the teachers to keep our programs strong for all our children.”
    “I understand your frustration,” board member David Cassidy said. “Whether we pass or don’t pass this budget, it isn’t going to make a difference on if that teacher comes or goes. The only way a teacher gets hired or fired in any good school district is if the administration says so. To this point, this [budget] is what our administration is recommending. If they [administration] come back to us and say we need another teacher, we will find the money somewhere.”
    Superintendent Bob McDaniel said, by law, a school district is able to move up to 5 percent from each of its cost centers during the course of the school year.
    “If my administrators tell me this plan won’t work, and their recommendation is to add another teacher, I will bring it to the board,” he said. “The principals are the ones who run their buildings and have a much better idea of what the needs are.”
    Resident Amanda Dow expressed frustrations over losing the teaching position and the inability to rectify the matter at the district budget meeting.
    “As a parent, I’m concerned,” she said. “I have spoke to Mr. McDaniel on a couple of occasions and have not gotten any feeling from him that he would consider adding this position back.”
    The school board voted in April not to fill the two teaching positions. At that time, the enrollment figures for next year projected 23 students in kindergarten. Since that time, however, the number of kindergarten students anticipated next year has grown to 26, and could go higher, according to Mill Pond School Principal Loreen Wiley.
    “When we made the decision [to not fill the kindergarten position], there were 23 projected students,” Wiley said. “I told the finance committee I could not justify a [kindergarten] class with 12 and one with 11 students.
    “The numbers have changed since then,” Wiley continued. “It would be wonderful if we could reinstate a teacher because of the numbers. We also have 29 registered for pre-K for next year. If we do not have another teacher in the primary grades, it will only be a one-year thing. Yes, we probably need another teacher.”
    Board member Joel Oliver noted that the only way a teacher could be added for next year, based on the existing budget, would be to pull money from other areas.
    “The money is there, but it’s not there,” he said. “The money would have to come from some other line.”
    McDaniel said the school board would likely revisit the matter at its next regular meeting, slated for June 14.