Bangor school officials concerned the budget crunch will get worse

As time runs down for school districts to complete their budgets, the rhetoric about dramatic budget cuts is quickly becoming reality.

Bangor Superintendent James Doughty has prepared a budget which, if approved by the School Committee, increases last year’s budget of $21.9 million by about 2.7 percent. To reach that level, Doughty will recommend eliminating about 58 positions, roughly 10 percent of the district’s personnel.

Doughty’s budget was sent to School Committee members this week and will be discussed at a meeting Monday, April 8. Details of the specific cuts have been embargoed until the terminated employees have been notified, Doughty said.

In Brewer, the School Committee has already pared down about $365,000 toward its budget-reduction goal of $459,168. As with Bangor, personnel costs in Brewer account for the majority of the annual budget and are the largest part of the budget cuts. So far, personnel cuts in Brewer have included six high school teachers and 20 educational technicians, amounting to about $315,000.

The cuts are required, ironically, because of the region’s prosperity. Faced with higher property valuations and changes in the numbers of low income pupils, Bangor faces about $1 million in lost state aid. Brewer’s loss amounts to about $290,000.

“We’re doing our part to bite the bullet,” said Bangor School Committee Chairwoman Martha Newman Thursday morning. She and Doughty met with the Bangor Daily News’ Editorial Board.

For Doughty, the recommended Bangor budget is a line drawn in the sand. Further cuts could greatly affect education in the district, he said.

The story doesn’t end here and neither do the worries of Doughty and other school officials around the state.

The current cuts are not as painful as what could be around the corner. One suggestion to trim the state’s budget by Gov. John McKernan is elimination of the 13 percent state-recommended aid to local schools in 1991-92.

Doughty and Newman said the current cuts will slow progress of educational reforms but that progress would continue. However, with Bangor’s share of the state Board of Education’s recommended level at about $1.25 million, Newman and Doughty said that such a double whammy would be disastrous.

Doughty said that putting off education reforms now means they will cost more later. And with American students already far behind their counterparts in other countries, cutting education reform now would only serve to cut off America’s future, the Bangor officials hey pointed out.

“We have to make some changes,” Doughty said. “The sense of urgency is there.”

Newman and Doughty also contend that education should hold a more secure position when it comes to budgets. Both said education is the building block, the very fabric of society. And, said Newman, social programs only serve to work on the symptoms of society’s problems, many of which could be helped through better education.

“We have the only cure there is for society’s problems,” Newman said.

The future of education in Maine is in the hands of the Legislature, Newman said. During good times, the Legislature approved educational reforms and mandates, she pointed out.

“All of a sudden times got bad … and the state drops the ball,” she added. “This is no time to be dropping the ball.”