CARIBOU, Maine — In an attempt to close a looming budget gap and maximize state funding, RSU 39 school board members have eliminated 15 and a half staffing positions in four schools.
Superintendent Frank McElwain explained to the board that with decreased state funding and increased expenses, “we have this big gap and not at a time when we can go to the local taxpayers and ask for a significant increase in money.”
He also mentioned that the proposed elimination of positions came about after deep and thorough conversations about the budget, and the recommendation had been given by the finance committee in respect to the budget shortfall and long-term financial challanges that the RSU faces.
The Limestone Community School will see the most positions eliminated with the loss of a computer teacher, a math/science teacher, the half-position of an English language arts teacher and the elimination of four stipend positions — assistant athletic director, JV boys basketball, JV girls basketball, and a golf coach.
Caribou High School had the second most positions eliminated: a health/physical education teacher, a math teacher, an in-house supervisor, and two stipend positions — assistant athletic director and assistant wrestling coach.
Come fall of 2014, Caribou Middle School will have two fewer eighth-grade teachers — one from English language arts and another from science/social studies.
Hilltop will be losing one first-grade teacher.
McElwain stated that he does not believe all of the eliminated positions will equate to job losses as he anticipates four staff members could transfer to other vacant positions within the RSU.
When the finance committee first began exploring the 2014-15 budget for the school unit, McEwlain said that the finance committee began looking beyond the current budgetary gap to analyze how the schools are funded.
Seventy-six percent of RSU 39’s budget comes from the state and the specific dollar amount is determined using a mathematical formula that’s “all based on student numbers, and the bottom line is we’re losing students and have been losing students at a dramatic rate for years,” McElwain said during the April 16 school board meeting.
McElwain explained that the state lays out an expectation of how many teachers, administrators (etc.) the school should have in relation to its number of students, and uses those ratios to determine how much the school unit receives of its maximum 76 percent.
“When you’re well above those ratios, you get a penalty,” the superintendent said, describing that the staffing eliminations are about getting the school system to a more viable position to maximize state funding.
“Last year we offered an early retirement incentive, but there’s not the level of attrition to keep pace with the number of students we’re losing every year,” McElwain described.
He also explained to the board that since the RSU was formed, it’s lost 230 students. Between October of 2013 and April of 2014, the RSU lost 43 students — and from April of 2013 to this April, the school has lost over 60 students.
In his time as superintendent, McElwain has seen a large increase in the amount of students home schooled as well, from 15 students in a time when Caribou had an additional 500 students to now, where there are currently 85 students home schooled in a population that’s down 500 pupils.
“Each year, we get a few less and a few less, it’s very distressing, it’s demoralizing for the community and I’ve see how much we’ve gone into austerity in a lot of other directions,” said board member Dale Gordon. “We’ve cut to the bone in so many ways, technology, everything else, but once you get down to this you’re really cutting the guts of your school and it’s a tough thing to do.”
Board Chair Clifford Rhome explained that he needed more information about the list of proposed staffing eliminations.
“We’ve talked with administration, we’ve looked at the student numbers, and even though it will be more students per classroom — obviously by the hundreds of students we’ve lost, class sizes are small — and there will be some scheduling adjustments and the way we do business will change, but our students’ needs can be met with these cuts,” McElwain explained.
Gordon questioned whether or not the school would be able to maintain its policy on class size with the elimination of some teaching positions; McElwain said by and large, the RSU would be able to uphold the policy.
“(First-graders will) go into grade two at 21-22 students in a class, which is on the upper end of our comfort level, but it’s manageable,” he said.
Board member Tanya Sleeper asked about the board’s financial improvement plan and ways to possibly increase revenues, and Rhome responded succinctly. “We have very few choices,” he said. “We can tax the folks or increase our share of state funding, and in order to increase our share of state funding we have to become more in line with their ratios.”
Board member Michelle Albert expressed her disapproval of the state’s suggested student/teacher ratios.
“I don’t like how the state dictates what they feel your school should have when it comes to teachers and students and so fourth, that’s one of the biggest issues there,” she said. “They’re not in our buildings and they’re not in our town to see how things go, and then they’re dictating ‘you have too many teachers, you have too many this or that’— that’s hard for me to agree with.”
“The other thing,” Albert vocalized, “is I don’t know all of these (proposed position elimination) situations, I know some of these situations and I just take faith that administration and everyone’s worked and what’s being brought in front of us are the right decisions — and that’s another thing I have a hard time with, is not knowing all the positions,” she added. “But I just take faith that what was presented is what everyone feels should be done, and we’ll go from there.”
Before voting, McElwain told the board that figuring the current numbers that are anticipated to change slightly after the budget is passed in Augusta, “with the current number’s we’re working with, this will balance the budget.”
The board passed the motion to eliminate the 15.5 positions, with board member Kent Forbes not voting as he participated in the meeting via telephone.
The board also had to vote to discontinue contracts with three teachers: in respect of their privacy, the Aroostook Republican is not printing their names.
The drafted 2014-15 budget for the RSU 39, which includes the staffing eliminations, totals $18,404,350 — $336,264 less than the current budget, representing a 1.7 percent decrease.
That decrease to the taxpayers comes at a time when the RSU is losing another $100,000 in student tuition, again a reduction in state funds and is facing another 9.5 percent, or roughly $60,000, increase in their insurance.
“We’re looking to ask our taxpayer to offer the same mil rate that they’ve been providing recently,” McElwain said.
“This budget does reflect the staffing changes you approved,” McElwain reiterated. “It helps us not only get to a budget that’s balanced with receipts and expenses at a time when we’ve lost significant funding and we’re absorbing the significant increases.”
Also helping lower the budget was the board’s decision to adopt a common calendar, which will save roughly $36,000, and the closure of the Superintendent’s Building beginning next year, which will result in approximately $35,000 in savings.
Looking into the future, McElwain also informed the board that RSU 39 received notification that a new school building is in the works. On the statewide list of schools slated for replacement, Caribou had one school in the top 10 and one school in the top 20.
“In the old world, when times were good, those schools would have been on the fast track for construction and we’d be signing up an architect and breaking ground in no time,” he said, pointing out that this is not the old world and the state has yet to fund the construction of the first school on the list.
“We are on the list to move forward and to plan and envision and develop what would be best for our future, so that is exciting and I look forward to that process,” he said. The facility committee had recommended the creation of a kindergarten through eighth-grade school, combing what are now three buildings into one.
“That would be the dream — or some permutation of that,” McElwain added.
