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04/09/10
Workshops completed, School Board readies to adopt 2010-2011 budget April 13
After five budget workshops and a public forum, the School Board is poised to adopt a school budget for 2010-2011. The budget vote is scheduled for the next regular business meeting, 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 13, 2010, in the Town Hall chamber.
Time will be allowed for public comment at the beginning of the meeting before final vote on the budget.
While the board began budget deliberations with three scenarios - a no-tax increase budget, a "maintenance" budget preserving current programs and services at a tax-rate increase of approximately 5 percent; and, a "midpoint" budget between the two, board members spent most of their workshop time making adjustments to the midpoint budget proposal. (See School Department budget Web site for complete lists of adjustments)
Rebecca Millett, chairman of the School Board, said board members have not stated individually which budget or budget components they will support. "We really won’t know where board members stand until someone makes the first motion to consider a budget amount," Millett said. Adjustments to the midpoint budget proposal, however, were the consensus of different majorities.
As of April 5, the midpoint budget proposal of $20.67 million represents a spending increase of 3 percent, or $671,885 over this year's $20 million school budget. It poses a tax-rate increase of 2.75 percent, up 35 cents over this year's rate of $12.54 for school services. The impact on the owner of a home valued at $253,800 would be an additional $87.56.
Taken with proposed budgets for town, county and Community Services, which are posing flat or negative tax-rate increases, the midpoint budget would mean an overall tax-rate increase of $77.23 for the same household, an increase of 1.7 percent.
During their March workshops, board members restored six full-time equivalent positions, valued at $259,609, that had been slated for removal in the no-tax increase proposal. The midpoint proposal had initially posed a 2.5 percent tax-rate increase.
Offsetting the cost of these proposed restorations are $142,396 from contingency, a $42,000 anticipated decrease in special-education legal fees, and a $25,000 salary contribution from teachers and administrators. Last month, bargaining units representing teachers and administrators offered to donate salaries totaling twice the amount of the tax increase experienced by the “average” homeowner in Cape Elizabeth.
Net impact of the proposed restorations to the midpoint budget proposal is an added $50,213.
Chief among proposed restorations are:
- Full-time High School Achievement Center teacher, $68,000;
- Full-time health-office administrative support, $43,000;
- Full-time High School attendance administrative support, $40,000;
- Full-time computer lab educational technician at Pond Cove school, $32,000;
- and, half-time librarian and half-time library educational technician at Pond Cove, $38,000 and $15,000 respectively.
Taken away from the original midpoint budget proposal was $9,664 for an existing 2/10 time Mandarin Chinese teacher at the High School. Proposals in the original midpoint budget for new positions - a half-time executive skills teacher at the High School, $32,500; and full time Pond Cove media center educational technician, $33,000 - were also removed.
The offset from contingency includes $54,852 in additional state subsidy for Cape Elizabeth that was announced by the Department of Education on March 19. The use of contingency leaves $330,000 of the $417,544 that had been placed in contingency from savings in health insurance and unanticipated state subsidy increases.
The midpoint budget proposal includes staff additions that were also part of the $20.1 million, no-tax increase scenario presented to the board by Superintendent Alan Hawkins in March. These include:
- Full-time certified occupational therapy assistant, $40,000;
- Full-time educational technician for "pyramid of intervention" at the High School, $32,000;
- Half-time executive functioning teacher at the Middle School, $32,000;
- A 1/4-time nurse at the High School, $20,000;
- and, psychologist services, $22,000.
Because of state mandates, a $60,000 guidance position at Pond Cove School is also included in the midpoint budget proposal, replacing a half-time social worker at $30,000.
There are also staff reductions proposed, resulting in a net staff decrease of 2.65 full-time equivalent positions. Chief among these are:
- Full-time Middle School teacher, $80,000;
- Regular educational technician at Pond Cove, $33,000;
- Half-time Middle School librarian, $38,000;
- A 3/10 time choral music teacher at the High School, $22,000;
- Half-time educational technician and guidance administrative support positions at the Middle School, $20,000 each;
- and, a half-time Middle School computer lab educational technician, $18,000;
The monetary value of the proposed staff changes is a net reduction of $96,187.
On the revenue site, an increase in High School student parking fees, from $25 to $50, is proposed to generate $8,000 for fiscal 2011.
Complete information, including detailed adjustments to the midpoint budget proposal, is available on the School Department's budget Web site.
Once approved, the budget will be sent to the Town Council's Finance Committee, which will review it along with the Community Services budget in workshop session May 6, 7:30 p.m. in the Town Hall chamber.
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