By Jodi Hausen,Staff Writer

PHILLIPS – SAD 58 will receive about $43,000 in additional state funding to cover the cost of educating students from unorganized townships, according to Rep. Tom Saviello, D-Wilton. The district will receive $3.3 million of a total $9 million budget from the state next year.

Saviello attempted to gain additional state funding for SAD 58 through a bill that failed in committee, but he negotiated the additional subsidy for the district through targeted funds. Targeted funds are intended to subsidize school spending on technology, assessment and special education. He said the formula for this money has not yet been determined by the Department of Education, so it is unclear what will happen next year.

A legislative bill, sponsored by Saviello, that would have increased state funding for schools with tuitioned children from unorganized townships was killed in committee recently.

Prompted by SAD 58 Superintendent Quenten Clark, Saviello tried to change a funding formula, effectively increasing the state subsidy for students from unorganized territories.

Currently, state subsidies are based on the actual cost or state average to educate each student, whichever is lower. Saviello’s bill changed the wording to say whichever is higher for students from unorganized territories, which would have meant about $100,000 in state funding for SAD 58.

But Sen. Elizabeth H. Mitchell, D-Kennebec, objected, saying the bill discriminates against students from organized towns who attend schools on a tuition basis, who would be subsidized based on the lesser amount. Tuition for students from organized towns where no schools exist is paid by the student’s hometown and is also subsidized with state funding.

Saviello said in a recent interview that he couldn’t disagree with Mitchell’s argument. However, SAD 58 has the highest percentage of tuitioned students in the state – 135 students attend schools in SAD 58 from unorganized towns, almost 14 percent of the student population, according to Clark. SAD 44 in the Bethel region has the second-largest number of pupils from unorganized townships with about 40, said Saviello.

There’s a difference of about $750 per student between the actual cost and the state average, said Saviello. It is more expensive to educate students in SAD 58 because of the rural nature of the district, he added.

“We’re all being discriminated against,” Clark said Thursday. “There’s no democracy in the UTs (unorganized townships)” and no way for residents there to express their concerns short of going to the Legislature.

He said residents of SAD 58 towns pay in the range of 13 mills for property taxes, while landowners living in nearby unorganized townships pay only about 5 mills.

“They’re paying less than half (the taxes) and getting the same education,” he said of families living in unorganized townships.