NEWPORT, Maine — Regional School Unit 19 Superintendent Greg Potter laid out a few options for the budget committee to consider Tuesday night as the district battles a deficit of at least $3 million.
Potter addressed members of the budget committee and a few dozen concerned residents from RSU towns Corinna, Dixmont, Etna, Hartland, Newport, Palmyra, Plymouth and St. Albans during the meeting at Nokomis Regional High School.
Just a month after Potter said the district was about $1.9 million in the hole, now he says the district may have to borrow as much as $3.6 million for this school year.
Potter said the school would have to borrow a minimum of $3 million, which doesn’t include unfunded liability, which is mostly teacher pay for the months of July and August. The maximum needed would be $3.6 million, which he said would cover about half of the $1.2 million unfunded liability.
Some banks have expressed interest in working with RSU 19, said Potter, but each bank would like the audit report. Business Manager Jerry Nault said he expects the preliminary audit report by the end of the month.
Any of the borrowing, however, would have to be approved by voters from the eight towns. That’s something Potter said won’t be easy.
The 2012-2013 school budget of more than $23 million was narrowly approved by voters, 776-610.
If residents vote down the potential loan request on November’s ballot, Potter said the district will have to go to plan B — major cuts.
“If the voters in RSU 19 said, ‘No, we’re not going to support it,’ there’s a very real chance that could happen,” said Potter.
He said the district already has managed to save $800,000 through cuts, which include financing the purchase of four school buses instead of buying with cash. Other cuts will be more drastic.
About $140,000 in cuts are proposed in materials and supply items throughout the district. A spending freeze was put in place in July.
Additional maintenance cuts would save $40,000 as well as $30,000 from the music department, which doesn’t include cutting the program or the band.
More than $50,000 would be saved by reducing bus travel, he said, including the elimination sports travel and field trips that aren’t privately funded.
“We felt that kids would still be able to participate [in sports]. Parents and kids would be able to get together to find rides to their events,” said Potter. “We felt we could make it work without actually eliminating the programs.”
Cutting sports programs is not completely off the table, he said.
Also on the chopping block is an American Sign Language teacher and an ed tech, both part-time positions, along with a part-time guidance counselor position which is now vacant. Two full-time equivalent custodial positions and a full-time equivalent secretarial position also would be cut.
The new proposed cuts would total about $750,000 to $800,000. In all, the cuts would exceed $1.5 million, said Potter.
The new cuts would be needed only if the loan is shot down by voters.
The RSU 19 board of directors will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the high school for a workshop to establish and approve a plan to move forward to address the budget crisis.
Where has this Super & the Board of directors been? Sleeping? They didn’t see this coming a few years back when they were budgeting.
“He said the district already has managed to save $800,000 through cuts, which include financing the purchase of four school buses instead of buying with cash. Other cuts will be more drastic”.
Mr. Super. This is not a cut; you are just putting off paying for the busses to another day. You will still need to raise money in your budget to make the payments.
Now he wants to borrow 3 million dollars to make this years budget work, so next years budget will have to include the payments on the busses (as I said not a cut), plus the payment on the borrowed 3 million dollars. So if revenues stay the same, next years budget will be about 6million in the hole. So what do we do then? Then the Supers wonder why they don’t have any respect.
The budget issues were left by the last superintendent. Mr. Potter just started this year and walked into this budget mess. He is doing a great job of keeping the taxpayers and parents informed of the issue and our options.
I want to know why the business manager or former superintendent Braun haven’t answered how this happened.
If that is the case then my comments where directed at the last Super. This still doesn’t answer the question on why the budget comm. & School comm. didn’t see this coming. The School budget belongs to the school board not the Super. I think the school board should have to answer for this.
I wonder if Mr. Potter would have accepted the position if he had known the full scope of the financial hole the district was in. If he can pull the district out of this mess, it will be a huge feather in his cap. Keep up the good work Mr. Potter!
Etna and Dixmont should have NEVER consolidated. Now they have incurred the debt of RSU 19.
They already paid SAD 48 before the consolidation because they shared the high school. They do pay more now, but some of the failure to bill the towns in the last two years included them as well.
I asked at the meeting what portion of art. 13 (the unbilled part) was SAD 38 and was told it was 20,000. That’s a long ways from 3.6 million. We paid tuition prior to RSU 19, we did not share the high school.
The people at the top always say cut the teachers and little people not once do you hear the consolidation got rid of the high paid do nothing positions.They just keep all of them and pay them more or stay at the same salary,while the workers bear the brunt of the cuts and the people fund the high paid wages of double administration to run the RSU.
Cut sports and any activity that needs bus transportation. No need to use lights for the gym and don’t need coaches. The only after school activity should be adult ed which the person pays for themselves. Turn off the air conditioners and any un-necessary lights. But the dividers back up in the class rooms like it was years ago and make 2 class rooms and close up the portable buildings. Drastic cuts are needed this year and maybe next year things can return to normal. Tough decisions need to be made and it is not going to please everyone. I know I pay enough in taxes now and I can’t afford much more.