SAD 29 meets with towns, discusses upcoming budget

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — If the preliminary figures for state education funding formula hold true, it will cost SAD 29 taxpayers more to receive state funds in the next school budget.
    SAD 29 school board members met with town officials from Houlton, Littleton, Monticello and Hammond Tuesday to discuss concerns for the upcoming 2012-13 school budget. The meeting marked the first time in recent memory that school board and town officials sat down together to hear concerns and voice opinions prior to the budget being completed.
    “We’ve started the budget process a lot earlier this year,” explained SAD 29 board member Fred Grant, who also serves as chairman of the finance committee. “This will give us more time to prepare, digest and plan.”
    SAD 29 typically finalizes its budget in May, followed by a district budget meeting and referendum vote in June.
    The preliminary budget figures from the state, which were revealed Feb. 2 by the Department of Education, indicate that the district will receive more money from the state this year, but the amount of required local tax dollars the district must raise to receive money from the state will also be going up this year.
    Based on the state’s EPS (Essential Programs and Services) formula, which is designed to say how much money a school district should be spending to educate its students, SAD 29’s budget should be $11,750,783.
    “Even if we become more efficient, and don’t spend the full budget, it’s no different to the state,” Grant said. “The state says, based on its formula, this is how much it should cost you to run a program. If you are doing it for less, in essence the state is saying we should be spending more.”
    To reach this amount, the state would provide $8,536,127, which is an increase over last year’s figure. However, in order to get those funds, local taxpayers must contribute $2,949,884 — which is an increase of $467,273 from the amount raised last year.
    Last year, the district exercised an option that allowed it to raise only 88.46 percent of the required local share, which also reduced the amount of money the state contributed. The district could choose to go a similar route this year.
    In recent years, SAD 29 has not spent its full budget, leaving as much as $1 million in its coffers at the end of its fiscal year. That unspent money has rolled into the district’s undesignated (surplus) account. Last year, the board took $250,000 from its surplus account to help lessen the tax impact.
    Rob Hannigan, a member of the Houlton Town Council, asked if SAD 29 could simply ask for less state funds, thereby reducing the amount of required local taxpayers would have to come up with. His theory was that since the school district has not been spending its full budget in recent years, it didn’t need as much money as the state was giving them.
    “If we are running efficiently and have a lot left over, why wouldn’t we (ask for less money from the state),” Hannigan said. “That would in turn reduce what the towns have to pay.”
    Sue Tortello, a member of the Houlton Town Council, said the bigger question was, “How much do you really need to run the school?”
    Grant said the district could choose to reduce its required local share, but the state would also reduce its allotment to the district. Superintendent Mike Hammer added that while in previous years the district has had large carryovers, he did not expect that trend to continue this year.
    “I don’t anticipate at this point that it (this year’s carryover) is going to be as high as you have seen in the past,” Hammer said. “We do have some surplus from what you have done in the past.”
    “We are efficient and are trying to run lean,” added SAD 29 board chairman Liz Anderson.
    “It’s not like the school doesn’t need every dollar it can get,” said Glenn Hines, a selectman from Hammond.
    “The reality is, are we delivering the services to the level the state says we should be?” Grant asked. “If we are under-spending our budget, we potentially are producing students that aren’t meeting standards.”
    The final figures from the state are expected to be released within the coming months.