OXFORD – If Gov. John Baldacci’s funding plan passes, SAD 17 could get more than $1 million in additional aid over the next two years.

It’s news that would normally make Superintendent Mark Eastman celebrate.

But instead, he spent this week disheartened, poring over the state’s funding spreadsheet and wondering why his district didn’t get more.

“In fact, I’m going to have to ask my towns to raise a little more (in taxes) to maintain the same services,” said Eastman, who oversees schools in Harrison, Hebron, Norway, Otisfield, Oxford, Paris, Waterford and West Paris.

Across the state, other school leaders had much the same reaction.

School officials say Essential Programs and Services, the new way Maine will determine state aid for schools, was supposed to give them more money. A lot more.

Instead, many say they got a nasty surprise when they learned the new formula likely won’t give them the money they wanted, and that even a proposed $153 million boost in state aid isn’t going to help.

However, state education officials say other factors, such as enrollments and valuations, have affected funding levels. They say most districts are getting the amount of money they need.

Penalized

Essential Programs and Services is a complex method of distributing state aid. The state calculates the amount that each school system should spend to provide a basic education, and awards money from there.

The new formula – approved last year – is set to be phased in over the next four years. School leaders have largely lauded the change, saying it will give them more money for necessities, such as technology.

This week, the state released a spreadsheet detailing how much each school system could get over the next two years. According to the report, nearly 70 of the state’s 285 school systems would lose money at the end of two years. More than 200 would gain.

Lewiston would get one of the biggest increases, with an additional $3.3 million next year and another $2.6 million the year after that. Auburn would get an additional $545,000 next year and another $1.1 million the year after that.

But at a School Committee meeting last week, Auburn Superintendent Barbara Eretzian said she thought Auburn would have received more. Next year’s $545,000 won’t even be enough to cover increases in salaries and health insurance, she said.

“I have to say I’m more discouraged after today’s spreadsheet than I thought I would be. There was every indication that under EPS we would do well,” she told the committee Wednesday after an initial review of the spreadsheet. “It’s concerning.”

SAD 17 could get $116,500 more next year and another $940,000 the year after. Superintendent Eastman said his school system still isn’t getting the money he had hoped it would get.

The state will give all school systems extra money for their teachers’ salaries. But under the formula, SAD 17 will be compensated at a lower rate because it’s located in a part of the state that typically pays workers less, he said. He feels his school system also isn’t being compensated enough for its transportation costs.

“We’re being penalized,” he said.

Gov. John Baldacci has proposed a multimillion-dollar boost in state aid to schools as part of his tax-relief plan. School systems must use 90 percent of that money to offset local contributions and to lower property tax bills.

But Eastman said he may have to ask his towns for more money – not less – since SAD 17 won’t be getting as much of an increase as he’d hoped.

“There may be some property tax relief, but my towns won’t see it,” he said.

More money

Many school leaders aren’t happy with the proposed funding, but state officials say the complaints aren’t fair. They say declining enrollments and rising valuations, not the new funding formula, are to blame for some lower-than-expected state aid.

“EPS is getting blamed for virtually all the changes, no matter what they are,” said Jim Rier, a finance specialist for the Maine Department of Education. “Unit by unit, I can argue through every one of them.”

He said the state is looking at ways to help school systems affected by the new formula, and some may get more money to help cushion the transition. Who would benefit and by how much must still be decided.

But even without that cushion, Rier said more school systems stand to get more money, and state officials believe that is a good thing.

“I don’t think I can convince (school officials) that life is really better,” he said. “But right now we have the fewest losers we’ve had in years.”