Panel warns against `catastrophic’ budget cut

Bangor School Committee members and the district’s superintendent said Monday that a proposed $1.1 million reduction in the municipal and school budgets would be catastrophic for future school programs and state subsidies.

As much as $1 million of the petition, aimed at reducing the city’s tax increase from 8.3 percent to 5 percent and spearheaded by former Bangor City Councilor Arthur Tilley, would have to come from the School Department.

Bangor Superintendent James Doughty doubts that cutting so much so late would be possible without detrimentally affecting the district, this year and in the years to follow.

Discussion of budget petition came after a review of a five-cent increase to the hot lunch program, which could be the first to face the chopping block if the proposed reduction becomes a reality.

Already the district contributes in excess of $100,000 to the free or reduced hot lunch program aimed at helping the lower income families in Bangor. If the reductions are approved, Doughty said, this subsidy and others also not required by law may be the first to be cut or eliminated.

“It would be catastrophic if something (the petition) passes as it is being proposed,” Doughty said.

During the meeting as well as afterward committee member Martha Newman described how the petition could impact the pupils using the lunch program.

“There is no question in my mind if Arthur Tilley is successful, that item is in serious jeopardy,” she said. The elimination or reduction of that subsidy would “virtually ensure a substantial number are not going to learn due to hunger,” she said. ” If you are hungry, you cannot learn.”

The hot lunch program is not all that may be at stake, Newman and Doughty. said indicating that the Garland Street Middle School may also be hard hit.

Planning efforts for a multi-million dollar construction and renovations project, like the one being completed at the Fifth Street Middle School, are in great peril, if the reduction is successful, Doughty said. The budget proposal could force the district to delay the project which could be given the go-ahead by the state as early as this fall.

What this would mean for a district experiencing a rapidly increasing middle-level enrollments, Doughty said, is a proliferation of portable classrooms. Already Garland street has four of them and will need more to deal with the anticipated increases of 50 pupils per year over the next several years.

Approving the proposal would also hinder insuring that there’s an equity of programs between the schools, which were intended to be equal in offerings, Newman said. The Fifth Street school, for example, will offer a computer laboratory, where there is currently no room for such a lab at the Garland Street school.

“I’m struck by that and disturbed and I don’t think that it reflects the will of the public,” Newman said of delays the petition would impose on equalizing the schools. Newman added that by moving the Garland Street project forward, the state is indicated it believes that the project is an urgent need.

Future subsidies are also at risk, Doughty said. Each year districts receive state subsidies based on what they expended two years earlier. Decreasing this year’s budget would mean the district would receive less funding two years down the road.

Doughty said this years budget increase was largely due to the increased cost from debt service from the Fifth Street project, the renovations of the Garland Street Field, contract negotiations. In addition, this year state subsidies were decreased including an estimated loss of $300,000 because of rising property values in Bangor.