YORK - The state's budget woes were a subject of extensive discussion at the most recent York School Committee meeting.
When the School Committee met on Oct. 1, the issue of last year's eleventh-hour cut in state special education funding - which was announced by the state just as York's budget review process had reached its end and the ballot was about to go to print for the May vote - came up in the discussion of the coming fiscal year's budget process. The news from Superintendent of Schools Dr. Henry Scipione and Assistant Superintendent Jim Amoroso was anything but optimistic in terms of state funding.
During the current fiscal year, the School Committee learned in March that the Maine Department of Education had cut York's special education funding from $2.2 million to $1.3 million because of a projected $220 million budget shortfall at the state level. That cut reduced the share of the town's special education costs covered by the state from 84 percent to 50 percent, and required the School Committee to face a potential massive cut to programs or projects to address an unexpected cut in a budget that had already come in below the York Tax Task Force's recommendation for annual increases.
At the time, the School Department was told the cut would be a one-year occurrence.
However, when the issue came up during a preliminary discussion of the fiscal 2010 budget preparation at the board's first meeting of October, school administrators were anything but confident as to whether that would, indeed, be the case.
"Last year is going to pale in comparison to the deficit they're going to have this year," Scipione said of recent information on the state's funding issues.
He told the School Committee that fact raises serious concerns for the local budget process in terms of what is reasonable to ask of the community of York, which is already a minimum receiver in terms of state aid.
"The other implication is, when will we have this information - to enable us to be responsible with the budget we ultimately recommend to the voters?" Scipione said, referring to last year, when the board's decision, due to the late notice of the cut, was to support a one-time use of the department's existing fund balance to offset the loss of funds and minimize the impact on both taxpayers and educational programs.
School Committee member John D'Aquila said that once the upcoming Nov. 4 election is complete and the board knows who the town's legislators for the term ahead will be, a meeting should be scheduled with those individuals to share concerns about the implications of unforeseen state cuts for the local budgeting process.
The board agreed a follow-up meeting on the issue at that time is warranted and, as Scipione put it, the York Schools will need community involvement throughout its budget review process given the potential funding implications.
In other business, the School Committee also heard a report from Scipione on the Sanford Regional Vocational Center Advisory Meeting, approved this year's Educational Strategic Plan and endorsed the School Committee's goals for the current academic year.
Earlier in the meeting, the board discussed the York High School music instructional space addition, which was approved by the voters back in May.
Amoroso noted that the process is moving forward, with the goal of formalizing recommendations for a construction manager for the project in the weeks ahead. The York School Department previously employed a construction manager for its York Middle School addition and renovation, which was considered a successful process to use. Action on the next stage of planning for the music wing project is expected to be scheduled during the board's first meeting of November.
The next School Committee meeting is scheduled for Oct. 15 at the York Public Library at 7 p.m. and, as always, time for public input will be allotted.
