NEWPORT – The 65 people who attended the SAD 48 budget hearing Tuesday night had not a single question for their school board members, or the superintendent, regarding the latest of three budget proposals.

Instead, they were waiting to hear from their state senators and representatives who were on hand to report on the latest educational package coming out of Augusta.

SAD 48 voters have twice rejected a $17 million school budget by a 2-to-1 margin. A budget $200,000 lighter than the first proposal will be voted on Sept. 9.

The budget cuts include 10 teachers, six support and music positions, two new buses, all intramural sports, freshman basketball, cross country, all B teams at the middle school level, the entire gifted and talented program, and an assistant superintendent.

“We have heard repeatedly from you that we need to get the message to Augusta,” said board Chairman Ronald Fowle II of St. Albans. “Well, here they are.”

State Sens. Paul Davis and Betty Lou Mitchell, and state Reps. Joshua Tardy and Peter Mills were joined by Maine’s Commissioner of Education Susan Gendron in appealing for support for Gov. John Baldacci’s Essential Programs and Services proposal on the fall ballot – a proposal they promoted as relief for struggling districts such as SAD 48.

“The message from Augusta is one of hope,” said Tardy. “But it needs to be a credible message. Those of us that serve in Augusta all agree the [educational] spending should be increased. The battleground, however, is how that increase is going to happen.”

All four legislators touted the governor’s proposal as superior and more responsible than a competing measure being proposed by the Maine Municipal Association.

“If the governor’s proposal is passed and implemented, over the next few years, the mill rate in this district will drop by four mills,” predicted Davis, who admitted, “The state is spending more money on education but their percentage of costs has decreased. It just hasn’t been made a priority.”

Mills explained that the Essential Programs and Services proposal will be a measuring stick for districts. “For the first time there will be some guidance from the state regarding the reasonable costs of education,” he said.

“Yours is not a unique problem,” Mitchell told the residents. “In Portland, they just cut from 13 elementary schools to eight. This is all over the state.”

Most of the few questions asked of the legislators centered on understanding the governor’s proposal and how it would affect the district in the future.

Some in the crowd, however, were not buying the rosy picture presented.

“We need to solve our own problem,” said Ephrain Rojas of Newport, to a scattering of applause. “I’m not saying these people are not trying to help but I’ve heard a lot of words like ‘may,’ ‘could’ and ‘should’ tonight. We need to pass this budget on September 9 and direct the board to start September 10 on solving this budget problem for ourselves.”

Looking at solutions is exactly what the board plans, chairman Fowle reported.

Some of the areas that the board has pledged to assess include:

. Privatization of the bus fleet.

. Contracting cleaning services.

. Revamping the hot lunch program.

. Providing a new budget format and reporting method.

. Looking at impending retirements in relationship to position assessments.

. Working more closely with town officials throughout the budget process.

. Restructuring the administration of the district to include a business manager.

. Reassessing closing or consolidating some schools.

“All of these things need to be carefully assessed,” said Fowle. “These are the kinds of things that affect the budget but we need to determine if we will get the same services and provide the same quality of education.”