SAD 4 panel to vote on funding formula

GUILFORD – A SAD 4 committee could vote this week whether to send to referendum a change in the school-funding formula requested by Abbot residents.

The committee was organized after a petition signed by 300 people – mostly Abbot residents – asked that the district begin a process to amend the local education cost-sharing formula.

Abbot residents think they are shouldering about double the per-pupil cost of other communities of similar size and want the local additional funds assessed solely on per-pupil costs without factoring in municipal valuations. Local additional funds are those funds raised locally without any state subsidy match.

“We believe that while this will benefit Abbot at this point in time, it could end up being beneficial to other towns in the district in the future,” Abbot Selectman Jan Ronco said Monday.

Even if a change was approved, Abbot would still pay significantly higher per-pupil costs than other communities, she said.

The committee of 18 people – one school board member and two residents each from Guilford, Sangerville, Wellington, Parkman, Abbot and Cambridge – have been charged to determine if the current cost-sharing formula for the local additional amount is fair or should be changed.

The committee will meet at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 30, in the Piscataquis Community High School library.

Facilitating the committee is Jim Rier, director of finance and operations at the Department of Education.

“My challenge this week is to be sure they have fully investigated the implications of any change before they more forward to recommend a change or no change,” Rier said Monday.

If the committee voted to send the matter to referendum, it would take an overall majority vote in the district to bring about a change, according to SAD 4 Superintendent Paul Stearns.

Public hearings would be held before the referendum. If the committee voted not to recommend a change, the matter would be dropped, he said..

The formula used to assess the local additional share is the only school funding formula that can be changed. In 2006-2007, SAD 4 raised $400,000 in local additional funds.

Those “no frills” funds were needed to bridge the gap between what the district needed to raise and the amount the district should have received through the Essential Programs and Services, according to Rier.

He said the state has not fully implemented EPS or the new funding law, both of which will be completed in 2009. Less and less local funds will be needed when the law and program is fully implemented, he said.

Even with the $400,000 in local additional funds, SAD 4 was still $67,000 below what the state EPS formula has determined to be the minimal amount needed for the district to deliver the learning results, Stearns said.

In comparison, about 70 percent of the school districts in the state spend more than the amount identified through the EPS formula for education, Stearns said.

The district’s increase in valuation, the fact that some mandated positions have been unfilled in the past and declining population has not helped the school district’s position, Stearns said.