12/28/2012

State curtailment plan includes nearly $200,000 reduction for Cape schools

Cape Elizabeth is slated to lose nearly $200,000 in general purpose aid to education as part of a state budget curtailment order issued by Gov. Paul LePage Dec. 27, 2012.

LePage issued the order to reduce state spending by $35.5 milion to balance the fiscal 2013 budget. State law requires a balanced state budget on June 30, but revenue projections have fallen short this year.

The curtailment order includes a reduction of $12.58 million in general purpose aid for local schools in the current fiscal year. The Department of Education published a spreadsheet Dec. 28 detailing the amount each school administrative unit can expect to lose, based on the state's Essential Programs and Services funding formula.

Cape Elizabeth stands to lose $196,872, or nearly 10 percent of its $2 million allocation for 2012-13, according to the spreadsheet.

"That's a significant percentage of the school budget and we're half way through the school year," School Board Chairman John Christie said in a telephone interview. "Finding ways of producing that amount of savings half way through the school year is challenging," but, he said, "we will work hard to find ways to produce savings with minimal impact on student learning."

He said the nearly $200,000 reduction is about what by the School Board, superintendent and business manager anticipated when LePage talked about impending budget shortfalls in November. Christie said the full board will likely discuss possible actions at its next business meeting Jan. 8.

The curtailment is expected to be part of a supplemental budget to be considered by the Legislature in January. The total amount is less than the $63.1 million statewide curtailment ordered in 2009 by then Gov. John Baldacci, when Cape Elizabeth lost $621,440 in state aid as part of a $38.1 million reduction to school subsidies statewide. At that time, the School Board held a community forum and established an ad hoc curtailment committee to address the reduction in subsidy.

While the board has not yet determined how it will address this latest curtailment, forming a separate study committee is unlikely. "It's a smaller hit that we're absorbing," he said.