By David Harry

Staff Writer

School positions will likely be eliminated in next year’s budget, even through Bob Mitchell and Brian Dell’Olio are not certain what they’ll be.

Dell’Olio, chairman of the Board of Education, and Mitchell, chairman of the board’s finance committee, are considering three fiscal year 2011 budget scenarios for Scarborough schools. Mitchell said the upcoming budget will be reviewed during a public hearing 7 p.m. Thursday at Town Hall.

“This is not a make or break year, but it is a directional of what we do over the long term,” Mitchell said.

Superintendent David Doyle’s $36.89 million budget maintains current curriculum and staffing in the district of about 3,200 students and includes new labor contracts for teachers, bus drivers, food service workers, custodians and building administrators.

The budget increase also includes a 12 percent increase in health insurance premiums and 5 percent increase in dental insurance premiums.

A second budget plan created with guidelines from board goal-setting sessions held in December and January reduces spending from the current $35.19 million to $34.62 million.

Line items submitted by school principals and Athletic Director Gary Groves call for elimination of about 44 jobs and reductions in foreign language offerings, arts programs and the possibility of fees for participating in extra-curricular and athletic activities.

The board also requested Doyle create a third budget of $35.09 million. Another 10 positions in the district will be eliminated to reach that amount, according to budget documents.

No matter which budget is created and then passed on to the town council, the additional local tax burden is about $3 million, Mitchell said.

The additional local demand is created by the loss of $2.03 million in subsidies from the Maine Department of Education. Because surplus money was used to help close the gap caused by a $1.13 million subsidy reduction from the Maine Department of Education for the current, fiscal year 2010 budget, the increased tax burden on residents would be closer to $3 million, Dell’Olio said.

Both Dell’Olio and Mitchell said they expect the budget presented at the hearing will be a hybrid of what officials call level 2 and level 3 cuts.

“I’m a realist – how do you minimize disruptions and be fair and equitable?” Mitchell asked.

The decreased spending comes after a decade of school budget increases and varied levels of state aid.

The fiscal year 2001 budget was $18.23 million, with $4.07 million from the state and a local tax levy of $13.05 million, according to school budget documents.

In fiscal year 2005, the school budget rose to $24.4 million, with an additional $4 million in debt service due in part to the $27 million high school expansion voters approved. State aid totaled $4.27 million and the local tax levy was $19.5 million, according to budget documents.

The fiscal year 2010 budget, including $4.17 million in debt service, reached $35.19 million. State aid was projected to be $7.04 million but was reduced as part of state efforts to eliminate the budget gap of more than $430 million over the next two years.

Mitchell, who was re-elected to the board last November after a three-year hiatus, served on the board from 2000 to 2006.

In the first half of the decade, Mitchell said school enrollments increased nearly every year. Budget documents show enrollment increased by 128 students in 2000, 138 students in 2001 and 118 students in 2002.

At the same time, Mitchell said, increased property valuations in town brought in $600,000 to $800,000 in annual tax revenues.

Now, with enrollments and valuations stable, maintaining district operations in the first budget scenario could add 70 cents to the property tax rate of $12.15 per $1,000 of value, Dell’Olio said.

That would result in a tax increase of $140 on a home valued at $200,000.

Gary Kimball, a 25-year town resident, who worries teachers unions are promoting their vested interests instead of focusing on students throughout the country, said he would support a tax rate increase.

“But I have a strong feeling about where it should go – not for salaries or maintaining layers of management,” he said.

Scarborough resident Donna Stephen, who said she was once principal of Windham Primary School, expressed empathy for principals facing staff cuts.

“But it is naïve to believe we can continue to offer the same services,” she said. “We have to decide the difference between wants and needs.”

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219