POLAND — The School Committee for Mechanic Falls, Minot and Poland signed a memorandum of agreement with the school system’s Education Association on Monday night to have employees take four furlough days in 2010.

School officials had asked staff to take the furlough days to save $175,000, a key portion of the $319,500 being cut due to reduction in state aid. 

“Teachers have done something unprecedented. This is teamwork at its best and a recognition of the economic situation we all are in,” committee Chairman Dave Griffiths said. 

Regional School Unit 16 officials and representatives of the teachers union have worked on this agreement since early November when Superintendent Denis Duquette called for the furlough days. 

The union representing school staff has voted three times on the matter. The first vote on Nov. 16 was to open the contract to negotiations. A second vote occurred on Dec. 4.  Because of a few legal glitches, the agreement voted on had to be revisited and a third vote was taken earlier on Monday to formalize the final agreement.

The matters that needed resolving were the exact dates of the furlough days, which will be taken on teacher workshop days in February and March, and two others at the end of the school year. 

By taking furlough days in this manor, students will not lose class time. A second area that needed resolving in the final vote, Duquette said, was taking the word “charitable” out of the agreement. 

The third item that needed to be resolved clarified the way hourly and salaried employees pay will be reduced. Hourly employees will see their pay reduced by 1.57 percent and salaried by 1.93 percent.

“Everybody gave it their best. It took a lot of work to make this happen,” Duquette said.

Acknowledging that this reduction is the result of a $38 million cut in state aid, Education Association Co-President Laurie Callahan indicated that work has just begun in light of deeper cuts expected in next year’s state aid.

“Now we will begin working toward the next budget,” Callahan said. 

Early indications, according to the Maine School Management Association, are that school funding next year could be down as much as $150 million.