Editor’s note: The printed version of this article included inaccurate information regarding Superintendent David Doyle’s salary. The reduction in administrative salaries from $168,000 to $150,000 mentioned also includes a portion of Assistant Superintendent Jo Anne Sizemore’s salary. The error has been corrected in this version.

By David Harry

Staff Writer

Vowing to pay more in taxes and urging the board to reconsider its priorities, more than 150 people flocked to Town Hall last Thursday to comment on the proposed fiscal year 2011 school budget.

While Board of Education Chairman Brian Dell’Olio said the proposed $34.41 million budget “does its best to keep the impact minimal and programs intact,” speakers lined up for more than two hours to deliver countering opinions. The current budget, which includes adult education programs, is $35.19 million.

Maureen Desveaux cited strengths of academic and athletic programs and said she worried about the future quality of schools for her three children.

“We got all this by doing what we are trying to cut now,” she said. She added her first-, third- and fifth-grade children should benefit from programs she supported before she had school-age children.

The budget calls for a spending reduction of almost $786,000 and increases the local property tax levy from $26.7 million to $28.39 million.

If no municipal surplus is used to offset the tax levy, the 6.36 percent increase would increase taxes 48 cents per $1,000 of property value, Dell’Olio said. Properties currently are assessed at $12.15 per $1,000 of value and the possible increase would add $96 in property taxes to a home valued at $200,000.

The possible property tax increase, like the budget, remains preliminary, Dell’Olio said. Finance committee members built the  budget anticipating a $20 million increase in town property values this year. That figure is reasonable, said Town Manager Tom Hall, but the full valuation compiled by Town Assessor Paul Lesperance will not be completed until summer.

School spending must be cut because the town lost more than $2 million in state aid and lacks a surplus to fund next year’s programs, said Bob Mitchell, chairman of the school board’s finance committee. Maintaining the status quo would lead to a 10.25 percent increase in the tax rate, he said.

 “The bottom line is 10 percent is unreasonable,” Mitchell said.

The budget combines elements of two scenarios presented the finance committee earlier this month. One called for reducing spending to $34.62 million and the other for a reduction to $34.05 million.

The budget as currently proposed would lead to job reductions. Among the 43 positions slated for elimination are the equivalent of more than 23 teachers, 11 educational technicians, two bus drivers and three secretaries. Although upper-level French courses at Scarborough High School will be kept, introductory classes at Wentworth Intermediate School would be eliminated.

The proposed elimination of high school video production courses and cuts to the middle school health education program drew sharp criticism from students James Sunshine and Emma Cooper.

Sunshine called the production course one of the best electives offered at the high school because it involves technological learning that translates into real world job skills. Sunshine used his own work producing cable and streaming broadcasts of council meetings as an example of course benefits.

Cooper, an eighth-grader at Scarborough Middle School, said deferring knowledge about substance abuse and sexually transmitted diseases taught in the health program could be harmful.

“Some won’t learn the repercussions of their actions until high school and it may be too late,” she warned.

Caterina McLean, a 2009 Scarborough High School graduate attending Chicago University, sent her opinions in a letter read at the hearing by her mother, Jean-Marie Caterina.

In the letter, McLean attributed her success as a student to the depth of offerings throughout the schools and said it was impossible to cut one area without adversely affecting others.

Resident Tim Coombs presented his view of preserving education as investment, while another resident, Jeff Porter, asked the board to reconsider cutting staff over supplies and new buses.

Superintendent David Doyle’s request as part of his new contract reduces the combined amount of his and Assistant Superintendent Jo Anne Sizemore pay from $168,000 to $150,000.

A second public hearing took place Thursday, after the Leader deadline.

A public forum for students and parents in sixth through 12th grade will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the cafeteria at Scarborough Middle School. A forum for ealier grades will be 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the same location. A second reading and vote on the budget is scheduled for March 18.

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