CSD 9 board sets date for public hearing

By Ben Austin
Staff Writer
    DYER BROOK — Southern Aroostook Community School District held a regular meeting Monday night, during which time they took an unusually large amount of public comment, pertaining to the need for an accepted district budget for the upcoming year.
    CSD 9 has attempted twice so far to pass a budget through voting by the six towns within the district, which include Island Falls, Oakfield, Smyrna, Merrill, Dyer Brook and Crystal.
    Monday's allowed members of the public to come in at the beginning of the meeting and voice their opinions on the recent budget issue that the district has been dealing with since June.
    Approximately twenty members of all of the towns showed up to listen and voice their opinions to the board about how to go about getting the budget passed. The most commonly agreed upon ideas were that some non-educational programs, such as athletics, should be cut or limited in order to alleviate the budget.
    “They had some good questions, and we’re going to work on the answers and all with it. There may be more [questions] when we have a larger group,” said Superintendent Terry Comeau.
    Overall, the public was looking for the board to look at the district as a business. With businesses and families cutting back due to the economic issues throughout the nation, the members of the public within CSD 9 are looking for the school to tighten up and become more efficient as well.
    “I would like to ask that the school board would look closely at the budget and try get the numbers down to match what the state says that it would take to educate the number of children that are here. I ask that you look at those numbers and try to look at it as a business would look at it. What’s the return on your investment? What are the testing scores and how are they reflecting the education that the money is being spent for,” said Gene Lawler, of Merrill, during the meeting.
    The board voted to hold a special public hearing to further discuss the budget issues. The hearing is set for next Monday, August 18, and will take place at the Southern Aroostook Community School at 7 p.m.
    “I think it was good, and I’m glad we got the meeting scheduled, and we’ll know more and dig into it a little deeper on the 18th,” said Comeau in a phone conversation yesterday.
    After giving their opinions, members of the six towns quickly filed out and the board moved on to the rest of its agenda.
    Immediately following the public discussion, Comeau briefly spoke about the school’s emergency management plan, which is continually evolving. Comeau mentioned the possibility of slimming down parts of the plan, which come off as extra, or unnecessary, at the school.
    Gears quickly shifted to a presentation by SACS principal Jon Porter, pertaining to the few changes made to this years school handbooks. The major addition made by the school to the handbooks was the advisor/advisee program. The program, which is meant to increase academic achievement by giving more personal relationships between students and teachers, has been developed using ideas from other schools around the region.
    “We’ve been talking about this over the last couple of years. We’ve worked on it, and it kind of ties into what we’re doing with the kids. We’ll learn as we go.” explained Porter.   
    Following the presentation by Porter the board voted unanimously to accept the new handbooks.
    The board then covered the price of  lunch for students throughout the school, which they decided unanimously to maintain from last year, rather than increasing them to the state maximum price of $2.25. The school did, however, raise the adult lunch prices from $3.25 to $3.50.
    The CSD 9 board then, after an in-depth discussion, decided somewhat reluctantly to send the regional planning committee’s plan on consolidation to the state, with a vote of 5-1. SAD 29 and SAD 70 both voted to do the same Monday night. Once the proposed plan is accepted by all districts, as well as the state, members of each town will vote on whether or not they would like to go through with the regionalization plan.
    “With the plan, it’s probably best to get it there, get it approved and bring it to the people. I would think that there would never be a time that we shouldn’t do that, we should always get it to the people,” expressed Comeau.
    The board continued the meeting by accepting the school calendar for the upcoming year, which has students starting school on August 26. Members of the board also voted unanimously to accept the new policy committee report, which was changed only slightly from last year.
    In employment issues, the board unanimously voted to hire Vaughn Sleeper as the varsity basketball coach, Jessica Porter as the new year book advisor, and Marilyn Burton as the NHS advisor, as well as to accept the resignation of Shelly Francis, who previously served as the French and Spanish teacher at SACS.
    Following the voting, Porter once again stood up to address the board, this time about the updated school curriculum, which, although still built on the same foundation, has been built up in order to further continue SACS’ improvement in meeting AYP standards.
    “The teachers are doing a lot along the lines of beefing up curriculum, working towards meeting goals, having kids meet standards, and all these things are kind of intertwined,” explained Porter.
    The board finished their meeting in executive session, which dealt with an update of negotiations.
    Voters from the towns within the district are urged to attend the upcoming public hearing at SACS Monday, August 18, at 7 p.m.