PARIS — In their first meeting since voters rejected Maine School Administrative District 17’s $51.6 million budget June 11, administrators and the Budget Committee set Aug. 6 for a second referendum.

A public hearing to present a revised budget is scheduled for July 23.

The committee met Monday ahead of the regularly scheduled school board meeting at the Central Office, where directors reviewed statutes surrounding the process. Maine law dictates that when a school district budget is voted down, spending reverts to the previous year.

For MSAD 17, that amount is just under $48 million and does not contain any provisions for tackling maintenance and repair in general, nor to rehabilitate Agnes Gray Elementary School in West Paris, which has been closed to students and staff since February, specifically.

Directors discussed separating a revised budget from a controversial $2 million capital investment fund in the next referendum. The capital funding had been strongly opposed by some of municipal officials in the eight-town district who urged taxpayers to vote against it.

No decisions were made on whether or how to adjust the $2 million request.

Superintendent Heather Manchester confirmed that the largest increases in the rejected budget were for technology, facilities, transportation and utilities.

“Instruction only went up by 2%,” Manchester said. “It was facilities, and technology. It had to do with fixing things. And our infrastructure for technology is about to die.

“We did add four positions in this budget, but that’s not what’s driving up the costs,” she said.

Those four positions had been largely covered by pandemic-era funding. One is the outdoor education coordinator that was created with Rethinking Remote Education Ventures grants through the Maine Department of Education, and another is the science, technology, engineering and math educator who leads experiential learning at the Roberts Farm Preserve in Norway.

The other two are social worker positions created in response to more behavioral health issues during the pandemic and are seen as important to retain.

Manchester said $700,000 was added due to negotiated raises for support staff. “We need to pay our support staff something that’s above minimum wage.”

While no decisions were made on how to whittle down spending in the coming school year, Director Veronica Poland of West Paris said she is not willing to entertain cuts that will impact plans to upgrade safety infrastructure.

“So what do we go without?” Chairman Troy Ripley of Paris asked.

The combined votes in the eight district towns June 11 was 1,236 to 1,846. A majority of voters in Harrison, Hebron, Oxford, Paris, Waterford and West Paris opposed the budget, while the majority in Norway and Otisfield supported it.

	Yes	No	Total	Yes %	No %
Harrison	77	481	558	13.8%	86.2%
Hebron	55	77	132	41.7%	58.3%
Norway	393	245	638	61.6%	38.4%
Otisfield	126	96	222	56.8%	43.2%
Oxford	187	306	493	37.9%	62.1%
Paris	265	346	611	43.4%	56.6%
Waterford	78	87	165	47.3%	52.7%
West Paris	55	208	263	20.9%	79.1%
Total	1236	1846	3082	40.1%	59.9%

The budget supports MSAD 17, Maine Vocational Region 11 and Oxford Hills/Nezinscot Adult Education. It has been complicated by building projects to replace Oxford Hills Middle School in Paris and Agnes Gray Elementary School in West Paris within the next five to seven years. Both schools were placed on Maine Department of Education’s priority list for replacement in 2022.

Anticipating eventual new buildings, starting with the economic downturn of 15 years ago, district administrators and school board directors followed a pattern of deferring maintenance on its schools.

The consequences were amplified after the architectural firms contracted to lead the new construction projects, LaVallee Brensinger of Portland and Harriman of Auburn, inspected all schools last year and released reports that led to the closure Agnes Gray in February. Among the dangers identified in the report were lack of egress in most rooms of Agnes Gray, unsafe ramps, stairwells and fire exits and other life safety and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance issues.

“We can’t not fix the schools,” Peter Wood, director from Norway pointed out Monday.

Manchester said that to tackle school repairs through a bond vote it will require collecting bids and writing detailed plans, a process that will take months to work through.

The Budget Committee plans to meet again next Monday at 4:30 p.m.

Copy the Story Link

« Previous

Paris moves forward with solar project on former town dump

Next »

Norway residents weigh in on proposed rooftop bar