By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
HOULTON — A tough budget session appears to be in store for the SAD 29 school board.
During Monday night’s school board meeting, Superintendent Mike Hammer and finance committee chairman Fred Grant brought the rest of the group up to speed on the where 2013-14 budget stands. On Friday, the district received preliminary figures from the state Department of Education.
“Things are much different this year,” Grant said. “The proposal from the state is that the impact to our municipalities works out to just over 8 percent.”
Grant said one of the reasons for this increase is the state’s decision to move 50 percent of the cost of funding teacher’s retirement plans to the local school districts. Grant said the final decision on whether to push half of the retirement costs to the local municipalities has not yet been made by the state.
“Again we are seeing the continuing trend of shifting from state funding to local funding,” Grant said. “That is probably not going to go away. It is very concerning to see this shift and the impact is potentially devastating for schools across the state.”
“This is a fundamental shift in the way we fund education,” added Hammer. “Even if the teacher retirement piece does come out, (the impact) is going to be shifted in some other way.”
Grant said it would be wise for the district to take an “aggressive” look at its budget, not just for the next fiscal year, but for the next three years. He added the district should make plans to speak to its legislative representatives in Augusta and urge them not to support the continuing cost shift.
Budget workshop sessions, which are open to the public, have been scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 13 and March 20 at the Superintendent’s Conference Room.
“These meetings are open to the towns and we really encourage people to attend,” Grant said.
In other agenda items, the board:
• Listened to a presentation on classroom technology from math teacher Craig Fournier.
• Reviewed NECAP test scores for grades 3-8 and SAT scores for grade 11. The NECAP scores showed SAD 29 to be above the state average in most of the scoring categories.
• Board member Cynthia Hillman-Forbush urged the district to consider reviewing its pre-school classroom numbers. Houlton Elementary School has 81 pre-K students and two teachers who have separate morning and afternoon classes. Class sizes range from 19-23 students. Hillman-Forbush said that was a lot of young students for just one teacher and suggested the district consider adding another teacher if the numbers remain at this level.
• Reviewed expenses and revenues for the 2012-13 fall musical. The board learned that this year’s play production cost nearly $18,000 to produce, and brought in revenue of $9,414, resulting in net loss of about $8,500. Some board members suggested raising ticket prices by $1-$2 to help increase revenue and questioned how many stage musicians were needed.
The next regular meeting of the SAD 29 school board will be held 6 p.m. Monday, April 1.
