local school of our old

Before Gov. John Baldacci announced his plan to cut $63.1 million from the current state budget, local school districts knew they'd be taking a hit.

Districts had been warned this might be coming back in the spring, and both the Wells-Ogunquit Community School District and RSU 21 had plans in place for dealing with the funding loss. The surprise was that the cuts, announced by the Maine Department of Education on Friday, Nov. 20, were in some instances deeper than expected.

"We had preliminary meetings because we knew this would come through," said WOCSD Superintendent Elaine Tomaszewski on Friday. "But we anticipated $182,000, not the $213,558. That's a big discrepancy."

Department of Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said the cuts to education total $38 million, all of which will come out of districts' general purpose aid.

"It is important to understand that in calculating the reductions to each school administrative unit, we have not changed the total Essential Programs and Services allocation for individual units or the statewide total," she said.

Gendron reminded districts that no cuts will be final until they receive legislative approval.

That's hardly a consolation to RSU 21 Superintendent Andrew Dolloff, who said the $883,392 in funding the district will lose will not affect staffing this year, but will almost certainly force personnel cuts in the future.

"Although it appears we will be able to make the reductions without any loss of jobs or programs this year, there is little chance of accomplishing the same goal next year," Dolloff said in a release Monday. "We will have to take a hard look at all of our programs, and unless there is better news coming from Augusta or Washington, some tough decisions will have to be made."

Tomaszewski said her board had already identified areas in the budget that could be cut, including travel, conferences and supplies. The board looked at things that would least affect students.

"But now we're going to have to go further," she said.

In RSU 21, Dolloff said unanticipated revenue from Medicaid reimbursement and a reduction in the special-education budget for out-of-district placement are largely responsible for making up the funding lost.

"It is our intent to keep these cuts as far away from classroom instruction as possible," he said. "That's not easy when nearly 80 percent of the budget is tied up in personnel costs — the vast majority of which have a direct impact on our students' learning and safety."