12/03/09
School Board officially approves ad hoc Curtailment Committee
The School Board on Dec. 1, 2009 officially approved an ad hoc committee to prepare recommendations for the financing needs of Cape Elizabeth schools in response to "significant reductions" in the state's general purpose aid to education this fiscal year and next.
By a 6-0 vote, the board approved the seven-member committee, which had been proposed help Cape Elizabeth schools plan for a pending $621,440 curtailment in state subsidy for this fiscal year, and what could be a drop to less than a $1 million subsidy in fiscal 2010-2011.
The Curtailment Committee has scheduled a community workshop for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 8, in the High School cafeteria. (see story) "This is an opportunity for anyone in our community to come together, roll up their shirt sleeves and work with other community members to brainstorm around various approaches that can be taken with regards to this curtailment," said School Board member Rebecca Millett, at the board's Dec. 1 business meeting.
Millett and fellow board member Kathy Ray will serve on the committee, as well as Sara Lennon and Anne Swift-Kayatta representing the Town council, Tim Thompson representing the Cape Elizabeth Education Foundation, Dwight Ely from the Cape Elizabeth Education Association (teacher's union) and one of the High School Student Advisory Council representative to the School Board. Staffing the committee will be Superintendent Alan Hawkins, Town Manager Michael McGovern and school Business Manager Pauline Aportria.
The School Department's state subsidy in 2008-09 was $3 million, an increase of 8 percent from 2007-08. In fiscal 2010 the state subsidy is $1.9 million, or 40 percent less than the previous year. The $1.9 million figure does not include a $699,120 federal stimulus allocation from the state, which will not be affected by the curtailment.
A curtailment of $621,440 will bring this year's subsidy to $1.25 million. The overall school budget for this year is $19.3 million, again not counting the federal stimulus funds.
The committee will present recommendations to the School Board, and other related town organizations, by Jan. 15, 2009, the charge says.
Millett, appointed by the board to serve as committee chairman, said the committee would more meetings to discuss the results of the Dec. 8 workshop. "And again we are calling it a public workshop, not a public hearing. This is all about problem-solving, not a chance to espouse particular personal approaches," she said.
In a related matter, Millett reported to the board Dec. 1 on a meeting school officials had earlier that day with Jim Rier, director of finance and operations for the Maine Department of Education.
Superintendent Hawkins, who also attended, called the meeting valuable, but was disappointed at the lack of guidance given for building next year's budget. Rier also could not give a breakdown of how expected federal stimulus funds might be allocated to individual school systems.
"He (Rier) was looking to funding that could be less than $1 million for us, that was an important piece for us," Hawkins said. The fiscal 2011 budget will be very difficult to build, Hawkins said. "There are always a lot of unknowns, but this year they are so much different and so many of them," he said.
Millett said expected subsidy cuts could be four times as much as experienced this year, but that a decline in Cape Elizabeth's state property valuation might prove slightly favorable when the subsidy formulas are applied. Cape Elizabeth's state valuation peaked this year, she said, "the year we are being hammered with a curtailment".
"Mr. Rier confirmed that really ultimately the big impact on allocation to districts really is state valuation," Millett said.
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