PARIS — Funding public education in Oxford Hills has become a monthslong challenge this year. Schools opened at the end of August, but the school budget is still unresolved after voters twice rejected it.

The process has been complicated by rising costs, the abrupt closure of Agnes Gray Elementary School in West Paris because of a failed building inspection, complicated issues about whether the 130-year-old facility would be replaced amid conflicting proposals about a partial consolidation that would also close and replace schools in three other towns, and a poorly crafted and received capital improvements plan, among other issues.

SEPT. 19, 2024: Maine School Administrative District 17 Superintendent Heather Manchester (right) stands by as Buckfield resident Terry Hayes moderates the third validation meeting for the district’s 2024-25 school budget, which goes to a referendum vote again Oct. 8. Nicole Carter / Advertiser Democrat

At last week’s third validation hearing, a few continued to hammer away in opposition, this time honing a message against standardized test score averages and high school graduation requirements.

But others stood and delivered messages of support for Oxford Hills’ youngest residents and the responsibility to provide them with quality education.

One person, who identified herself as Sally, spoke early about her daughter’s high school diagnosis of severe attention-deficit disorder. She credited her daughter’s success in college and career at the University of Southern Maine as a digital archivist as a result of the support she received at OHCHS when she needed it most.

Brewster Burns, who retired last year after 25 years as an OHCHS social studies teacher, came out even more forcefully.

“One thing I learned as a teacher is we live in a capitalist economy,” he said, “where you are competing all the time. What’s happening right now in this school district, this area, is suffering death by a thousand cuts.

“One of the reasons our test scores may not rise as fast we want is because (in other districts) they have fewer students per teacher and they pay more.”

Burns then offered an anecdote he recently learned from Patrick Hartnett, the former SAD 17 assistant principal who is currently principal at Yarmouth High School: In his three years in Yarmouth, he has not had to replace a single teacher, excluding retirements.

“And the teacher he gets in? Is an experienced teacher,” he continued. And where does he hire them from? He said that it’s clear to him that places like Oxford Hills are the training grounds for good teachers. “(When) they go (to Yarmouth), they have fewer students, better conditions, fewer duties, and way more money.”

Burns provided another anecdote, stating that OHCHS recently lost one of its best teachers to RSU 14 in Windham where over the next three years they will earn $51,000 more than they would have in SAD 17.

“She was supposed to have 110 students this year. Down there? She has 72.

“What we need to do is stop being in the paper for all the problems we have here and start competing with the rest of the state. We do that by passing this budget. …. We need to show the rest of the state that we support our schools the same way we support things like athletics and our technical school. Otherwise, it is just going to get worse and worse.”

Acknowledging that stronger school budgets affect property tax burdens, he pointed out they also provide value to and investment in the community, making it attractive as a place where others will want to invest their lives as taxpayers.

Burns’ statement earned a round of applause from almost everyone in the Forum.

He was followed by Mike Dunn of Harrison, another former educator who also received applause for his remarks.

“I don’t like this budget,” Dunn said. “It’s too small. As I’ve thought about it over the last few days, I was reminded of the expression which I’m sure you’re all familiar with.

“It goes something like this: ‘The beatings will continue until morale improves.’ It translates to this: ‘’The budget cuts will continue until education improves.’ That is not the way this works.”

He continued by saying that although he does not like it, he will support the budget because of the work of the school board. Its committees and district administration have done their best to deliver education to Oxford Hills’ students.

One resident who has vociferously attacked the budget in all three validation hearings is former school board member Bob Jewell of Paris. During last Thursday’s meeting Jewell pivoted his argument to Burns’ and Dunn’s points by agreeing the budget should not be cut while continuing to criticize it.

He then circled back to his position that requiring 21 graduation credits when the state of Maine requires only 14 is unreasonable. He urged the board to put more resources into younger grades instead of broad curriculum options SAD 17 currently offers students, claiming it is the reason standardized math, English and science test scores in the district are “horrible.”

“I am not for cutting this budget,” Jewell said. “What I am for is changing where the resources go. We’ve got a very broad base of courses that we offer at the high school.”

The Advertiser Democrat has looked at 15 other Maine school districts and found the average number of credits required for graduation is 22.4.

No school required less than 18 credits to graduate.

According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling, the minimum number of high school credits college applicants should earn is 17, with the Princeton Review advising those core math, English, science and social studies classes be balanced with elective courses.

SAD 17 Superintendent Heather Manchester confirmed to the newspaper that 13 of the 21 credits required for graduation from OHCHS are for English (four), math (three), science (three) and social studies (three). Students must also earn credits in physical education, visual or performing arts and health education, for a total of 15.5 required curriculum graduation credits.

The other “elective” credits are designed to help students design their own path to their future, Manchester said. “We are required to teach Maine Learning Results, which offer opportunities for students to be well-rounded in academics and also provide room for them to follow their passion and develop their career path after high school.”

Students may take more math and science classes if that is where their passions lie. They may pursue music or other arts classes that provide the spark to a future career in those fields. They have the option to take an assortment of classes to experiment with new concepts and ideas.

OHCHS students can apply credits earned from some classes toward core curriculum credits in college, allowing them to matriculate toward an associate or bachelor’s degree before they graduate from high school. In addition, hundreds of sophomores, juniors and seniors take part in career technical education through Maine Vocational Region 11 Oxford Hills Tech School, classes that earn them high school graduation credits.

“I’m not sure it’s wise to remove experiences at one end of the spectrum to enhance those at the other end as the best way to improve elementary education,” Manchester offered, adding, “In this district, our high school is the most efficient building as far as aligning to the state’s formula for essential programs and services (state funding).

“Early childhood is very, very important…our interventions start at pre-school…into first grade. We use title funding for elementary school interventions and ed tech support” in classrooms, she said.

Coming out of the pandemic, she sees two main challenges to raising standardized test scores, which SAD 17 has prioritized tackling.

“We don’t have a curriculum problem,” Manchester said. “We have an attendance problem that we are addressing with a multi-tier strategy.

“And we need to address staff retention. Our goal has been to increase the number of years for our employees to more than three. This year we’ve improved that number by 4%, and currently 73% of our staff has been with us more than three years.”