FARMINGTON — The subject of whether students should pay insurance for laptops was thoroughly debated at Thursday’s Regional School Unit 9 meeting on budget cuts.

Voters turned down the proposed budget in a June 9 referendum. Since then, RSU 9 directors have been meeting to determine how much should be trimmed from the budget.

Vienna director Helen Wilkey was opposed to cutting $36,252 out of the proposed $72,504 for laptop insurance, which would force parents of students not receiving free lunch to pay for the insurance.

“The idea that we ask students and parents to pay for laptop insurance is just wrong on so many levels,” she said.

Wilkey pointed out that students use laptops for homework and research. She also questioned why students receiving reduced hot lunch would have any more ability to pay than students receiving free lunch.

Wilkey requested that Superintendent Thomas Ward obtain a written statement from the school district’s attorneys at Drummond Woodsum law firm that only students getting free lunch would be exempt from insurance fees. She said for everyone else to have to pay was a form of discrimination.

“Any cut hurts,” Mt. Blue High School Principal Bruce Mochamer said. “I just worry about putting kids and families in those situations.”

However, Chesterville director Ross Clair urged the board to look at the big picture, because many people in Maine and the region are living on fixed incomes.

“This affects each and every person within the county, whether it’s the elderly or fixed income,” he said. “We don’t have an unlimited checkbook.”

Farmington director Yvette Robinson noted that a focal point of modern education was for students to do research and homework using laptops. She added that RSU 9 doesn’t charge athletic participation fees.

“I’m not saying we should charge for athletics, I don’t think we should, but that’s an optional thing,” she said. “These laptops are interwoven in the curriculum. We created that situation.”

Directors opposed the motion to cut the $36,252 from the account.

There was also some discussion about how much to cut out of the library books and periodicals budget line. The proposed budget amount for the school’s libraries was $356,526, with $25,899 of that being spent on books and periodicals.

Director Cherieann Harrison of Wilton wanted to reduce the line by $2,500 instead of the $5,000 originally proposed.

“The heart of the library is really the books and periodicals,” she said. “I feel we should not be reducing it quite so heavily for books and periodicals.

Ward commented that at Mt. Blue High School the school district was trying to get more use out of computers by moving them from a computer lab into the library so students have more access to them.

“That’s why we have to spend more money on technology,” he said, noting that money would also be used to purchase projectors and other equipment.

Cascade Brook School library educational technician Amy Graham noted she had removed some outdated books from the library that had been used for research, and wanted to replace them “with things kids can use. It will be a slow process with less money.”

Harrison rescinded her first motion and instead proposed a $6,824 reduction in technology supplies in all buildings. In that section of the budget, $58,475 had been originally proposed.

Directors approved Harrison’s motion for the $6,824 reduction.

bmatulaitis@sunmediagroup.net

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