OXFORD — The state has agreed it owes the Oxford Hills School District $225,000.

The Board of Directors unanimously agreed Monday night that the $225,000 will be used to offset an estimated $502,000 state curtailment for the fiscal 2010 year.

“We had a hard time convincing them (Department of Education officials) that this was an error, a $225,000 error,” said Superintendent Mark Eastman of the Essential Programs and Services miscalculation by state officials.

According to Eastman, the error was discovered this spring by Business Manager Cathy Fanjoy while reviewing a state form that deals with reimbursement money for certain students receiving special education.

Eastman said he received assurances from Commissioner Susan Gendron several weeks ago that the money will be reimbursed to the school.

The $225,000, coupled with an unused $47,287 “give back” donation from school employees who agreed to make voluntary pay reductions last year, make up the majority of the plan to reduce the state curtailment.

A “Give Back” committee chaired by Marcye Gray, and members George Sincerbeaux, Tina Fox, Phil Hammett and Vicki Hill, recently recommended that the money be used to offset the anticipated fiscal year 2010 curtailment of state funds and that the funds should be used for staff retention.

School employees received nationwide attention last school year when many agreed to take a reduction in pay to help offset an earlier state curtailment. The money did not have to be used last year but many employees agreed to keep it in a fund for future use.

In addition to those two sources of money, the Board of Directors voted to offset the fiscal 2010 curtailment by taking another $20,000 from an unfilled language teaching position; $20,000 by cutting the activity bus one day a week; $25,000 in savings from new teacher payroll; $50,000 from the contingency fund and another $100,000 in revenue from Medicaid reimbursements to the district. A $25,000 commitment from the vocational school brings the total savings to $512,287,  Eastman said.

The district’s curtailment is presently $502,000, which leaves about $10,000 available for future cutbacks, he said.

“We’re not convinced there will not be more. If there’s more of a curtailment we’ll go elsewhere,” Eastman said without specifying what other cutbacks might be necessary.

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