Like most districts in Maine, RSU 13 (the consolidation of SAD 5 and 50 - Rockland, Thomsaston, and other coastal towns), has a shortfall is the upcoming budget - of $3 million, we are told. And to meet that, massive cuts are proposed, in order to cap property tax increases at 3 percent:
More than 21 teaching positions, more than 20 support staff positions, several administrative posts and 24 stipend jobs would be eliminated under a budget being developed by the Regional School Unit 13 administration.
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The proposed administrative cuts include the elimination of the Gilford Butler School principal. Under the proposal, the principal of the St. George School would also be principal for Gilford Butler. The elimination of the MacDougal School principal post was already expected with the decision by the board and public to close the Rockland elementary school. One of two district business manager positions would be eliminated but it has been vacant since the retirement of John Spear.
One administrative assistant to the superintendent would also be eliminated. Lucarelli announced that Sharon Spaulding, who has served every superintendent in SAD 5 and now RSU 13 for 35 years, is retiring and her position would be the post eliminated. Josephine Talbot, secretary at the high school, is also retiring and her position would be eliminated.
The teaching positions that would be eliminated include ones in kindergarten, second grade, third grade and fourth grade at the South School in Rockland. Art, English and math teaching positions at Rockland District High School are also on the cutting block.
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A gifted and talented district-wide teaching post would be eliminated as would positions for an alternative education teacher at the middle school, an elementary librarian and a social worker -- all in the former SAD 5 schools.
But are such cuts really the way to deal with budget issues? Writing in the Maine Sunday Telegram, Bill Richards argues that the issue requires making serious choices about the purpose and scope of the entire system, and it is well worth the read (and I thank the MST for giving Richards as much space as it did):
There is little question that public education in Maine is expensive. For most communities, between 65 and 75 percent of the school budget is tied to personnel. The logical conclusion is to look at personnel costs for relief.
It is true that if Maine's policy-makers are truly serious about reducing the cost of public education, they need to make significant changes in today's public school mission. Our contemporary school mission includes a wide range of mandated social and educational services not present 50 years ago.
The cost of education is directly related to mandates from all branches of government. In addition, local school boards have contributed, too.
What programs or services are we willing to give up in an effort to reduce costs? The answer to this question is extremely difficult for policy-makers. For every program addition, there is an advocacy group supporting "what is best for children."
For example, are we prepared to give up social workers in schools who provide a population of students with critical support? Do we need to provide students with comprehensive health education? What about industrial arts or the visual and performing arts? Should education's mission be limited to the core subjects of reading, writing, math, science and social studies?
In 1818, Thomas Jefferson wrote:
"The objects of... primary education [which] determine its character and limits [are]: To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business; to enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts in writing; to improve, by reading, his morals and faculties; to understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either; to know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains, to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor and judgment; and in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed."
A good education is the foundation on which life's decisions are made. As Richards noted in his opinion piece, and which anyone who has spent time in an average school in Maine knows, the burdens placed on public schools have increased tremendously in the last 50 years (or in my case, 43 years since I enter Kindergarten). This, at a time when there has been a dramatic shift in the types of employment available to graduates - long gone are the jobs where below average reading and reasoning skills were acceptable.
So where does that leave us? Will we find the resources to prepare today's children for the 21st Century, a global marketplace?
Or will we look at how we can simply cut budgets? |
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