EUSTIS – SAD 58 directors voted Tuesday to approve Superintendent Quenten Clark’s proposed budget of $9,017,054 for 2005-2006.
The board voted not to replace two retiring teachers at Kingfield and Strong schools. It also voted to change a full-time elementary French position to a half-time position.
French teacher Carol Cupples advised the board to keep the French program as is, citing a recent Foreign Language Assistance Program grant the district received that so far has been used to purchase laptops and language-learning software for students.
“We’re miles ahead of most schools in language acquisition,” Cupples said.
According to Cupples, cutting French learning time in the schools could send a message “to the kids that what we’ve been doing for the past seven years isn’t important” and also might jeopardize the recently awarded grant.
Clark acknowledged Cupples’ concerns, but urged the board to consider the bigger financial picture facing the district.
“I started the French program,” he said, “but it comes down to trying to figure out what to do with the money we have.”
He added that one reason for choosing French as the subject to reduce, rather than art or music, was that, “I could do that without eliminating a person.”
Craig Boone, chief executive officer of Bunker and Savage Architects, presented plans for an addition to Stratton School. The addition will include a new special-education room, new middle school rooms, and more storage space for gym and janitorial equipment.
Directors decided to seek voter approval for the project and to increase the project’s budget to about $950,000 due to inflated construction costs.
“Concrete’s over $80 a yard now,” Chairman Mike Pond of Strong said. “It’s all because of the increase in fuel prices.”
Directors voted to add a nursing position to the budget, squeezing a few thousand dollars each from money budgeted for school upkeep and administration.
“We took away something we need last week when we eliminated the guidance position,” said Alan Morse of Phillips. “We need to provide that for the kids somehow.”
The $9,017,054 budget for 2005-2006 is about 1.88 percent higher than the budget for 2004-2005.
Much of that will probably come from taxation, as the district will receive only $13,000 more than it did last year in state subsidies.
“Fuel prices alone have gone up by $60,000,” Clark said.
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