Superintendent Alan Hawkins will present three budget scenarios for the 2010-2011 school year at the School Board’s March 9 business meeting. On Feb. 23, the School Board finance committee, which includes the whole board, voted 5-2 to direct Hawkins to come up with a trio of plans: one cutting programs and preserving the current tax rate, another maintaining programs and raising taxes, and a third middle-of-the-road plan. Kathy Ray and Linda Winker voted against the motion.
Cape Elizabeth faces a school budget gap of about $960,000 for the 2010-2011 school year, Cape Elizabeth School Board Chair Rebecca Millett said at the end of February. Contributing to the shortfall will be an anticipated $40,000 curtailment in state education aid to the district, salary and benefit increases, special education costs for out-of-district placement, and energy outlays. On top of that, the school department will not receive $200,000 in undesignated funds from the town as it did for the current school year.
The in-between scenario, which would address half the gap through taxes and half through changes to employees’ salaries, was partly inspired by Cape residents who attended a school budget curtailment workshop Dec. 8, Millett said. Eighty people turned out to brainstorm ways to reduce school and town expenses and increase town and school revenues.
“This third scenario, which is a balanced approach, would be in the spirit of what was spoken by the participants at the curtailment public workshop, ” she said.
The motion approved on Feb. 23 also states that “to the extent that it’s possible,” the administration will incorporate suggestions from the curtailment workshop into their budget scenarios.
Having three plans to consider will be a plus, Millett said.
“By having these scenarios available for review, I think the School Board will be in a good position to make an informed decision about the best way to support education in our town during these challenging times,” Millett said.
Good news
The board got some favorable news in mid-February in an e-mail from state Rep. Jane Eberle to School Board member David Hillman.
Earlier in the month, Cape educators learned that the district might be out an additional $110,000 in funding next year because of a proposed change in the way that the Maine Department of Education would distribute funds raised through penalties to school systems that have failed to comply with the state’s two-year-old school consolidation law. The estimated $5.9 million to be raised through penalties were to be made available only to districts that comply, as Cape does. But in the beginning of February, the Legislature’s Education Committee voted that money raised through the penalty charges should be split among all districts, even those that don’t conform to the law. The change would have resulted in Cape getting $110,000 less in funding.
Cape won’t be out any money, however.
“... The ‘penalties’ provision that would have negatively impacted Cape Elizabeth has been voted down …,” Eberle wrote in a Feb. 13 e-mail.
School districts may get some more good news. On Feb. 23, Maine lawmakers learned that state revenues are $51 million higher than expected. Whether or not, the funds will trickle down to school districts remains to be seen, however.
School Board budget schedule
Other school budget meetings planned include School Board budget workshops and public hearings at 7 p.m. Monday, March 15, and Thursday, March 18, in the Cape Elizabeth High School library, both of which will be videotaped. The board will adopt a school budget at the members’ regular business meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 13, in the Town Council chambers. The board’s recommended budget will go to the Town Council on Friday, April 23. The School Board will present the budget to the council at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 6, in the council chambers. Millett, school board chairs from five Cumberland County school districts, and state legislators held a press conference Feb. 25 to officially announce a resolution approved by the six districts’ boards which dealt with asking the Legislature to change the state education funding formula and reproving lawmakers for current education funding policies and practices.
Education funding resolution
Last month, the Cape School Board approved the “Resolution Seeking Fair, Equitable, and Transparent Funding of Education in Maine,” along with school boards in Falmouth, Scarborough, Yarmouth, South Portland, and Portland.
To read the resolution in full, go to the school Web site, “joint cmty resoluton_Item7c.pdf.”