Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – With an $800,000 to $900,000 deficit looming, SAD 1 officials are taking steps to eliminate as many as six positions to balance the 2008-09 school budget. At the April 16 SAD 1 board meeting, Superintendent Gehrig Johnson said the district “is being forced to make these staff reductions.”
“We know we can make this work,” Johnson told directors. “The budget we will present next month doesn’t significantly cut into our fund balance and we are positioned well for 2009-10. I don’t think students will directly feel these reductions. There are more position eliminations that we considered, but they would be more directly affecting students, which we try to avoid.
“Eight months ago, I did not think that with the size of the deficit we were anticipating that we could be holding the line on our mill rate,” he said, “but our budget proposal does accomplish that. We have been able to balance this budget without increasing the mill rate.”
Among the proposed steps to balance the budget include:
• Eliminating 50 percent of the business manager’s salary and benefits and transferring the balance to MaineCare, for a reduction of $85,735.
• Eliminating the Career and Technical Education (CTE) director position and the adult education director position and create a combined CTE/Adult Ed director position. This would be a savings of $45,999.
“The new combined position would go to Larry Fox, who has served as SAD 1’s Adult Ed director in the past, and currently is the CTE director,” Johnson said. “He knows both programs well.”
• Eliminating one guidance counselor position, for a savings of $57,450.
• Eliminating one science teaching position at Presque Isle High School, for a reduction of $54,725.
• Eliminating two educational technicians from the special education department. This would be a savings of $47,612.
• Eliminating the automotive instructional position at the CTE Center, a $48,139 reduction.
“Our numbers have been declining in our automotives program,” said Johnson. “The numbers have been down in this program for several years. Hopefully we will be able to develop a program that will be more attractive to our students.”
By making these reductions, the district will save $339,660.
Charles Anderson, business manager, said state funding for the 2008-09 school year remains flat, as well.
“It’s not even a 1 percent change,” he said of this year’s proposed $14,446,621 state Essential Programs and Services [EPS] funding. “We’ll be able to maintain the budget and keep the mill rate at 11.6 mills.”
The proposed amount raised through local taxes will be $6,719,300.
“With the exception of Mapleton – which had an $11 million or 14.3 percent increase in valuation and will see a correspondingly larger increase in its share of the SAD 1 tax levy – all SAD 1 municipalities will see a tax reduction,” said Anderson.
Local taxes by municipality for 2008-09 are:
Castle Hill ($183,860), Chapman ($211,700), Mapleton ($1,017,320), Presque Isle ($5,061,080), and Westfield ($245,340) for a total of $6,719,300.
“Our goal was to say that the mill rate did not change,” said Anderson, “and if our budget recommendations are approved, we will have met our goal.”
“To provide our employees with a cost of living increase, plus with the increase of fuel,” Johnson said, “this is what we have to do. We have to have these reductions, but we’re able to maintain the budget, which is flat, and will not increase the mill rate.”
District budget workshops will begin next month, while the district budget meeting will be held in June.
