A CLOSER LOOK

A public hearing on the Acton school budget is Tuesday, May 5, at 7 p.m., at Acton Elementary School. The budget referendum is Tuesday, May 12, with voting taking place at the Town Hall.

The Acton School Committee has voted to pass on to selectmen a $5 million budget that would cut two full-time and one part-time positions from Acton Elementary School.

The committee, which voted on the 2009-2010 budget on April 14, is recommending that two full-time education technicians and one part-time Spanish teacher be cut from the budget. Acton selectmen will begin their deliberations on the budget on Thursday, April 23.

"This budget was not an easy one to put together," said Acton School Committee member Judith Shain last week. "We had to make a lot of difficult decisions."

The proposed budget reflects a 2 percent increase from the current $4.9 million budget, but is less than the $5.1 million budget from the 2007-2008 year, said Shain.

"The School Department eliminated the high school activity bus for students this year, which transports students to sports games and practices, as well as any extracurricular activities. The department also reduced the custodial staff's summer hours and stipends for school sports coaches decreased," said Shain. "That's part of the reason our budget was lower last year. We're keeping those cuts for next year, as well. However, contracted teacher salary raises are bringing up the budget."

According to Acton Superintendent Brian Beeler, Acton School Department's state aid was cut by 33 percent for the next fiscal year, from the current $278,373 to $186,868.

"The state is having communities take on a bigger share of the school budgets all over. We're a low-receiving town for state aid anyway, due to our high property evaluations. We are also in danger of having our state aid cut by 50 percent again, due to the fact that we have not found a school consolidation partner yet," said Shain. "We will be talking with state Education Commissioner Susan Gendron about our options. We're not quite sure of how much funding we will lose. I'm expecting we'll know within the next few weeks. If we lose that 50 percent, our aid will decrease by $93,434."

David Connerty-Marin, the spokesman for the Maine Department of Education, confirmed that it's likely Acton will lose half of its state funding.

"There's been nothing preventing Acton from going to talk with other districts and reopening the consolidation idea with them. The law is very explicit with this. Acton is too small of a district to stand alone," he said. "If Acton can approve a consolidation proposal by January 2010, then they can avoid the penalty for the 2010-2011 school year."

Shain said if the department loses 50 percent of its funding it would force the district to cut more positions and programs at Acton Elementary School.

"We have nowhere else to cut at this point," said Shain. "It would likely result in cutting some sports programs and other extracurriculars, as well as arts and music programs. We would also likely have to cut more educational technician positions."

The budget increase for next year reflects increases in the tuition rate for Acton students to attend Sanford High School, increases in bus contracts, general maintenance for the elementary school building, heating oil and contracted salary increases for some teachers, Shain said.

"I think it's important for everyone to realize that, while our budget is up slightly this year, unfortunately, we have had to make a lot of cuts, as well, in addition to the announced layoffs," said Shain.

According to Shain, the school department is eliminating a math program for upper grades at the elementary school. Shain said the math program was new to the school this year. Cutting the program next year will save the department around $7,000. Beeler is also taking a $3,000 cut in pay next year, from $53,353 this year to $50,000 next year.

The department will be saving around $54,000 in next year's budget due to the layoffs, said Shain.

"In these difficult economic times, the Acton School Department is committed to presenting a budget to the community that reflects conservative measures on those items which can be controlled, while balancing those areas with the costs in the annual budget which are fixed," said Beeler last week. "Our efforts to do this for the coming year have unfortunately forced us once again to reduce some of the programs and services that we offer to our students."