EUSTIS — Five towns in the SAD 58 school district have been paying from 60 to 75 percent of their tax dollars to the school system, and they’re going to be asked to pay even more.

Facing tough decisions ahead, the school board held the first of several planned community forums last week at the Stratton Elementary School. Residents, school employees and parents, including those from neighboring Carrabassett Valley whose children attend the school, spoke of their concerns that the district might decide to close the school. Kingfield, Strong, Avon and Phillips will have their turns to share concerns at future board meetings.

“The only reason we’re talking about any of this is money,” board Director Mike Pond said. “The state’s supposed to pay 55 percent of the funding formula they established, and they haven’t, ladies and gentlemen. The piggy banks of some of these towns are just about broken.”

Pond was referring to voters approving LD 1 in 2005, a law that increased the state’s share of education costs from 46.5 percent to 55 percent. Superintendent Quenten Clark said that although the state hasn’t yet met the 55 percent mandate, it still is allowed to withhold funding for schools which don’t meet their Essential Programs and Services requirements. Rural towns in the district have been hit hard by that funding inequity.

Sarah Strunk and Sue Fotter, Eustis board members, have been meeting frequently with their community members. Fotter shared a letter from Peter Smetanka, president of Stratton Lumber Inc.

“Our policy is to hire local employees first,” she read. “It is obvious that without a school, there is no way we can attract young workers to our sawmill.”

Fotter also read a letter from Lori Russell, human resources manager for Boralex, a wood biomass energy plant in town.

“One of the most difficult/important issues an employee deals with is the quality of life for their families,” Russell stated. “The importance of being in close proximity to their children’s school is so beneficial.”

Other towns don’t have the same problems, because most have seen their wood products factories and the businesses that depended on them shut down. Strong does have a new pellet mill, which will increase its future tax revenues. Kingfield has a large business base, which includes the new Poland Spring bottling plant.

TransCanada pays a real estate tax to Eustis on its wind turbine project’s transmission line running through the town, and tax assessor Sandra Scribner said she hopes to see a projected $100,000 “good neighbor” contribution annually from them once the project begins full power wind power generation.

“We have been able to keep taxes at a reasonable rate for many years because of businesses, but our tax valuation has gone up, as has most everyone’s,” said Scribner.

Still, over the last 18 years, Eustis has paid more than $1 million annually to support the district, and Scribner wants SAD 58 taxpayers to understand that the per-student tuition cost of approximately $7,500 is only one part of the total school budget.

Eustis taxpayers sent the district nearly $1.3 million last year. That’s approximately $14,000 per student, Scribner noted, and those additional tax dollars offset costs that kept taxes lower for other towns.

“The state caps our per-student contribution, and we’ve hit that limit,” Scribner explained.

Other towns now must make up the $172,000 difference.

“We have been offsetting the true costs of the other towns’ per-student costs, but I’m really tired of hearing it presented as something that’s our fault,” she said. “We’re still paying taxes, but other towns may have to pay more because their property values have gone up.”