 |
01/13/10 (updated 01/15/10)
School
Finance Committee sets
Jan. 18 meeting to address state curtailment
The School Board's Finance Committee will meet at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan.
18, 2010, to review Superintendent Alan Hawkins' plan to address the
$621,000 curtailment in state aid revenues anticipated for the current
school year.
The meeting date is a holiday, but the board has scheduled the William
H. Jordan Conference Room at Town Hall for the special meeting.
Soon after the beginning of this school year, officials learned of
impending curtailments to state aid to education around the state for
fiscal 2010. Cape Elizabeth's share of the $38.1 million curtailment
statewide is $621,440. "We will be listening to to Alan's plan for how
he wants to deal with it," said Kathy Ray, chairwoman of the board's
finance committee, at the Jan. 12 meeting of the School Board.
Earlier in the evening the board heard a rundown of suggestions for
cutting costs, and for increasing revenues, gathered during a public
brainstorming session hosted by the Cape Elizabeth Ad Hoc Curtailment
Committee on Dec. 8, 2009. The committee was appointed by the School
Board,
and charged with preparing recommendations for the financing needs of
the schools in response to significant reductions in state aid this
fiscal year and next.
Rebecca Millett, School Board chairwoman and chairwoman of
the curtailment committee, read through a summary of ideas gathered at
the public workshop. Suggestions were organized into categories for
generating revenue and reducing expenditures.
Millett's oral report did not recommend one suggestion over another.
"Everything is on the table when we meet in the future on the budget,"
Millett said. Suggestions were evaluated for possible legal
parameters, and whether or not they've already been implemented by the
School Department, Millett said.
In many cases, the suggestions have already been done. For example, a suggestion to eliminate
busing for High School students was realized last year when High
School trips were combined with those going to the Middle School. This
fiscal year, per-pupil costs for transportation in Cape Elizabeth is
$366, well below the state average of $570, she said. "As a district we
enjoy a fairly significant level of efficiency there," Millett said.
Cape Elizabeth also charges for students for participation in
ahtletics, has taken measures to reduce heating fuel consumption and
energy costs, and participates in group purchases of food and other
goods.
Other suggestions, such as enlisting the services of a professional
grant-writer, and generating tuition
by attracting out-of-district students to Cape Elizabeth,
are being
pursued, she said.
A suggestion for renegotiating salaries and benefits, or implementing
furlough days, would need to be agreeable to the teacher's union,
Millett said.
"I will say that all of these can and will be a topic for the School
Board discussions as we move forward, whether or not I mention any sort
of parameters or things that are being done," Millett said. "But,
I just think it's good for us to communicate to the public those areas
that have been addressed in the past by the school district.," she said.
The summary of curtailment workshop suggestions, with Millett's comments and background data made at the Jan. 12 meeting, are available on
this website.
School Board members thanked Millett for her work compiling the
Curtailment Committee workshop results, but Millett said, "Well, 'thank
you' to the 90 citizens who came."
Hawkins' recommendations for addressing the anticipated revenue
shortfall will be explained and materials handed out at the Jan. 18 finance committee meeting, and on this website after the meeting.
Previous stories:
|
Subscribe
