FARMINGTON — Regional School Unit 9 directors Tuesday reviewed a potential $230,136 in reductions to the proposed $32.25 million budget that was rejected by voters June 9. They took no action.

They will consider voting on each reduction at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 25, in the Forum at Mt. Blue Campus on Seamon Road. The board will also hold a student re-entry hearing at 6 p.m.

If all cuts are approved, it would bring the budget increase down to a little more than 3 percent, Superintendent Tom Ward said. He is hoping that with the additional general purpose aid expected from the Legislature, and a reduction in a proposed education tax rate increase that the towns will see less of an increase from the school budget.

The spending package rejected by seven of 10 towns earlier this month represented a 3.9 percent, or $1.2 million increase over the current budget.

The potential cuts did not come easy, and administrators think it is too much, Ward said.

Ward explained each reduction and answered questions from board members.

One person told the board that the potential $230,136 in cuts was a good start but directors needed to do better.

One reduction would be to the laptop insurance line. Instead of covering the cost to insure all student laptops in grades seven through 12, the district would only fund those for students that receive free lunch using E-Rate funding.

The original proposal had $36,252 that would need to be raised for insurance in addition to $36,252 in E-Rate funding.

This would have allowed students to take the laptops home to do school work.

“We believe laptops are textbooks. We felt no student should be penalized because they couldn’t afford (the insurance),” Ward said.

If the the board approves just using the E-Rate funding, parents will need to pay about $72 per student for laptop insurance so they could be taken home. 

Director Helen Wilkey of Vienna said it was unfair to pay for some and not others. She would be voting against it, she said.

Other reductions are cutting a new classroom teacher position at the Cascade Brook School in Farmington. The reduction would be $57,506. A second new teaching position would be left in the budget.

One parent was nearly in tears because she heard there would be class sizes at 27 for third grade and she said that was not going to work.

It was explained that might be the case if they didn’t add two teaching positions but with the addition of one position it would leave class sizes at 21 students in third grade, 24 in fourth grade and 20.8 in fifth grade. There is a large third grade class of 105 students expected at Cascade Brook.

Additional reductions are cutting a one-half French and one-half Spanish teaching position at $45,053 at the middle school. Students would still have foreign language and would get one quarter of French and one quarter of Spanish, school Principal Gary Oswald said.

Another potential cut is a new special education teaching position at the middle school for $49,559 and a reduction of $28,613 in heating oil savings.

Other potential cuts worth $13,153 are in supplies, dues, and books and periodicals.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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