SAD 34 to weigh budget Finance panel puts forth $22M figure

BELFAST – When the SAD 34 board meets tonight it will consider a recommendation from the finance subcommittee to put a $22 million budget before voters, probably during the week of July 10-14.

Voters defeated a $22.5 million spending proposal for 2006-2007 on June 13.

Monday night, the finance committee, along with several board members who do not serve on the panel, discussed cuts that would have brought the budget proposal down to $21.75 million or $21.5 million. But in the end, three of the four voting members believed the cuts would gut programs and put the district at risk.

On Friday, the committee heard a report from a team of consultants that includes former SAD 34 business manager Paul Luttrell. The report suggested a way to cut $500,000, which brought the budget proposal down to $22 million.

Luttrell recommended reducing the contingency account from a proposed $400,000 to $100,000. In the 2005-2006 budget, and for the previous several years, the contingency line was at $25,000.

But when the district learned in December it would face a shortfall, several outside observers said the contingency account, at one-tenth of 1 percent, was too small. An auditor recommended the district carry a 2 percent contingency, or $400,000.

Luttrell suggested phasing in the larger amount over a period of years.

The additional savings he recommended came in eliminating a planned bus purchase and instead using a lease-purchase arrangement, resulting in a savings of $105,000, and cutting $30,000 in bus aid wages.

Luttrell, who was not present Monday night, also recommended shuffling administrative positions, including eliminating the business manager position and the co-curricular director position at the high school and put those duties in existing administrative posts.

Monday night, the nine board members present discussed the additional cuts Luttrell and administrators had developed earlier in the day. Those cuts were grouped in five $100,000 increments, and included teachers, staff and maintenance projects.

Interim Assistant Superintendent Bruce Mailloux said the cuts, which come on top of 33 staff cuts from the 2005-2006 budget, reminded him of last year’s budget development process. “What we ended up with was a budget that wasn’t fully funded,” he said.

Board member Ron Kresge asked why more cuts were not made in the foreign language department at the high school, where enrollments are low.

Mailloux said that whether the French teacher has four or five classes does not change the cost of having that teacher.

To a question from board member Larry Doucette about special education requirements, Mailloux said the district was “very close in terms of [not being in] compliance.”

Board Chairwoman Jean Dube read a list of 20-plus high school classes with enrollments ranging from five to 12 students, and suggested more combining of classes was possible.

But Mailloux countered that English classes average 16.9 students, social studies classes average 18.4, and math and science classes average 19.6 and 17.8, respectively.

Kresge said that while the district has to offer fine arts at the high school, “We don’t need 17 different courses to choose from.”

Board member Alexa Schweikert argued for offering the $22 million budget, not the additional cuts developed Monday.

“These cuts aren’t recommended – the administrators did it because we asked them to,” she said, and suggested a $22 million budget could win voter approval.

By a 3-1 vote, with Schweikert, Doucette and Carol Fortin in favor and Miles Gray opposed, the committee agreed to recommend the $22 million package.

The full board meets at 7 tonight at the Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast.