FARMINGTON — Regional School Unit 9 directors voted Thursday to reopen the second year of the administrative bargaining unit’s two-year contract to adjust previously negotiated salary increases.

The request to reopen the contract came from administrators.

Mt. Blue High School Principal Bruce Mochamer said asking for the contract to be reopened is unheard of and unprecedented in the district. He said it was a one-time offer and he didn’t want it to become a habit.

Administrators are entering the second year of the contract. The previously negotiated raises would be about $47,000, Superintendent Tom Ward said. Thirty-seven percent of that is about $17,000, he said.

The adjustments are an effort to help the school board produce a lower budget to present to voters in the 10-town district. A $32.97 million budget was rejected on June 14 by 137 votes. The proposal was an increase of nearly $930,000 from the current budget.

Overall, $87,351 will be reduced from the administrative line, including $33,959 from the elimination of a half-time Mallett School principal position that is in the current budget, said Mochamer.

“I want to thank you,” Director Jennifer Pooler of New Sharon said. “I mean, I can’t imagine how hard (it is) … I just appreciate your willingness to work with us.” 

Administrators know that everybody is giving up something and they have given up a lot in the past, Mochamer said. The loss of a part-time assistant principal at the Mallett School is “a big bite,” and the loss of one-third of the assistant athletic director’s pay from $15,000 to $10,000 at the high school means more work is going to need to be picked up, he said.

“If we are going to be part of the team, we are going to be part of the solution,” Mochamer said.

The director of school counseling position is being recommended to be moved from the administrative line to a teacher contract, he said. Ben Milster, the former director, retired at the end of the school year.

With the reduction in the administrative line, it brings the proposal to reduce the budget to $235,400, Ward said.

Other recommended reductions include:

• no increase for the superintendent, $2,400;

• savings from two retirements, $35,000;

• new heating, ventilation and air condition contract, $25,000; and

• not filling a vacant world language position at the middle school, $48,000.

Also proposed are the following:

• reduction of $80,000 from the $165,000 contingency in the budget;

• reduction of technician liaisons’ stipends, $5,000; and

• reduction of $18,000 from preliminary negotiations of contracts for at-will personnel, including the business manager and curriculum coordinator/assistant superintendent.

Reducing the contingency puts the district in a dangerous situation if more special education students that need special services move in, a boiler goes or classroom sizes get too big and another teacher needs to be hired, Ward said.

This year, he froze the budget early when more than $300,000 was needed when more students moved in that needed special services, he said. There was $140,000 in contingency and it was wiped out quickly, he said.

An additional $50,000 from carryover would also be added to the $500,000 already factored in to offset the increase to town assessments.

Director Cheriann Harrison of Wilton presented a list of proposed reductions from suggestions made in the comment section of an website where people are not required to use real names if they don’t want to. Suggestions included taking a look at co- and extra-curriculum activities, including sports.

Audience members’ questions, comments and answers from administrators and bickering between some board members took more than an hour, which halted discussion on budget reductions. 

The board got back on track near the end of the meeting with an attempt by Keith Swett of Wilton to set a budget. His proposal of $32.73 million, a 2.17 increase over the current budget, was rejected by a majority of the board. Directors wanted to talk more about reductions.

The next budget meeting is at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 28, in The Forum at Mt. Blue Campus.

dperry@sunmediagroup.net

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