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 Local news and information from Blue Hill, Brooklin, Brooksville, Sedgwick, and Surry, Maine. |
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News Feature
by Jessica Brophy Union 76 Superintendent Robert Webster opened the January 25 Brooklin School Board budget workshop by saying the nearly $300,000 budget carryover discussed at the January 10 monthly meeting doesn’t exist. The $300,000 figure discussed at the earlier board meeting came from the audit report of the 2010-11 school budget. Webster said the discussion of the audit took place “out of context” of this year’s budget—which includes using more than $200,000 of that to reduce the local share of the total budget for this school year. Webster said the mistake of presenting the audit figure as a carryover available for the 2012-13 budget was his own. In 2010-11, the total local share raised from taxpayers in Brooklin for the school budget was $1,458,506. For this year, 2011-12, the $300,000 carryover from the 2010-11 budget was used in part to reduce the local share needed to $1,290,537, and to offset a drop in state subsidies. What this means in the context of budget planning for 2012-13 is that despite a draft budget that is down nearly $75,000, the amount drafted to be raised from local taxpayers is up by about 10 percent or $120,000, since there is only about $55,000 in carryover from this year’s budget. Town selectman Albert Smith called the one-year increase “unacceptable” and said that spending down the carryover in one year was an “error.” “To increase the local budget [by 10 percent] on local people is unacceptable with a declining student population,” said Smith, who asked how many students were projected for enrollment next year. Principal Halina Nawrot said there are currently 61 elementary school students and 31 tuitioned high school students. Next year Nawrot expects to see 60 in the elementary school, and only “two or three” are expected so far for the preschool. Smith then asked how much money the preschool program cost, and whether the school would run the program for only two students. Salary and benefits for the pre-k teacher is about $28,000, said Nawrot. There are often few pre-k children signed up in September, but they trickle in over the course of the year—as many as 16 at one point in December of 2011, she said. “I’m just trying to think of what would be reasonable,” said Smith. Board member Mike Sealander said the budget proposed for 2012-13 is only one percent over the 2010-11 budget. “If we want to seek a large amount of movement in the budget, that is a serious issue, and something that we should start talking about now for the [2013-14] budget,” he said. “It’s not good to make radical changes at the 11th hour.” Smith said he was not advocating for budget cuts of a particular amount, but encouraged the school board to “take a hard look” at the budget. “You can’t be all things to all people,” Smith said. “This is a town that has historically been very supportive of education,” said selectman Deborah Brewster. “It behooves the school board to not be seen as taking advantage of [that support]. Anticipating running a program for two kids at $30,000 is not being seen as cost effective.” Board chairman Mary Cummins said it took a long time to found a pre-k program, and that the school benefits from it “Children who start school here in pre-k stay here,” she said. Cummins suggested spending down some of the high school tuition reserve account, which has $40,000 in it, to help lower costs. There are several smaller classes coming up through the ranks, and the extra funds wouldn’t be needed for at least five years. “I would hate to see the pre-k program shut down because of one year of low numbers,” Cummins said. The Brooklin School Board meets for its next monthly school board meeting on Tuesday, February 14, at 6:30 p.m. |
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