11/20/09
Proposed curtailment of 2009-10 school funding tops $620,000
The state Department of Education has announced a proposed $621,440 reduction in state subsidy for Cape Elizabeth as part of Gov. John Baldacci's curtailment of 2009-2010 general purpose aid.
In a letter to superintendents statewide, Education Commissioner Susan Gendron announced publication of a spreadsheet detailing the proposed subsidy reductions, the result of a $38.1 million curtailment of subsidies statewide. "The reduction amount represents the governor's proposed curtailment and does not represent final action by the 124th Legislature," the letter says.
The figure for Cape Elizabeth is in the $600,000 "ballpark" school and town officials have been expecting since the beginning of this month, but is more than the $590,000 estimate officials had been looking at.
The School Board will meet in a special session at 7:45 a.m. Monday, Nov. 23, to discuss how the schools will deal with the impending reduction in revenue.
School Board Chairman Trish Brigham said the proposed reduction would present more of a challenge, but was within the range expected. Besides the Nov. 23 special meeting, the board's work in the coming weeks will include meeting with Cape Elizabeth's legislators to understand how the distribution of cuts was decided, and to lobby for more equitable treatment. "Cape Elizabeth seems to be penalized more than other districts," Brigham said.
According to Gendron's letter, the department re-ran the same calculations in the state's funding law, with minor adjustments, but with $38.1 million less in state share. "In other words, we calculated SAU-level subsidies for the year as if there had been $38 million less in state share when initially calculated last spring," the letter says.
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