RUMFORD — Mountain Valley High School Principal Matt Gilbert addressed the staff the day before the state’s school report card hit the newspapers. He provided small servings of ice cream as teachers entered the library.

Gilbert said, “I hope with everyone eating ice cream, no one will throw anything at me. The news I have to deliver is not good.”

He explained the proposed cuts to the school budget and what each line item would mean to the staff and to students. He said he told one teacher that morning that she would not be offered a contract in the fall due to those cuts. He said he may have similar discussions with others in the building.

The cuts will bring RSU 10 below the state’s funding model for Essential Programs and Services. According to the Maine Department of Education website, “Essential Programs & Services is designed to insure that all schools have the programs and resources that are essential for all students to have an equitable opportunity to achieve Maine’s Learning Results.”

Gilbert explained, “EPS is a minimal funding level that the state says a school needs to provide students with all the components of a well-rounded education.”

For the last five years, RSU 10 has been between 13 and 14 percent above EPS.

Then he handed out the state report card with a letter grade of F.

“This certainly doesn’t reflect the work you do each day to help our students,” Gilbert said.

He continued, “When students take advantage of all we have to offer at MVHS, they are safe, respected, responsible and get involved. Those students can compete against students from any other high school in Maine.”

“The kids who consistently show up and become involved in school and extracurricular activities do well on the tests,” he added.

Gilbert continued, “Our challenge is to convince some of our parents and students of the importance of a quality education.”

He noted that the school was docked a letter grade because 94.4 percent of juniors participated in the SAT last May. The state set the bar at 95 percent. Similarly, last year the school lost a letter grade from a C to a D because 91 percent participated.

With a note of frustration, Gilbert said, “Families of students who did not take the test didn’t understand the negative impact that choice would have on our school’s reputation and our community. People don’t want to move to a town with a school that has an F.”

He then explained how SAT scores are a rolling average for three years.

“If a class does exceptionally well, we have a benefit for three years,” Gilbert said. “But that has not been the case recently, one class did not take the test seriously and so we have their poor scores for a few years.”

In terms of graduations rates, both four-year and five-year graduation rates were below the state goals.

Gilbert said, “One of the frustrating parts of graduation rates is the students who don’t graduate are the ones that we haven’t seen in years. If their parents don’t get them to school, we can’t educate them. If the parents choose to home school them, that’s great but they need to fill out the appropriate paperwork to get those students off our roster.”

Gilbert has committed to providing more information about the differences between the school’s performance five years ago versus its current performance.

To find out more about the state’s report card, log on to http://dw.education.maine.gov/DirectoryManager/Web/Maine_report/SnapshotGeneral.aspx.