Saving Excellence in Scarborough Schools says budget has not kept pace with needs

SCARBOROUGH – As Scarborough schools try to figure out how to address a $1.1 million school budget shortfall, a new group of concerned parents and teachers is urging the community not to shortchange students’ education.

“Without a doubt, these are hard times for everyone,” said Christine Kukka, parent coordinator of the new group called Saving Excellence in Scarborough Schools. “What we’re trying to do is make sure the kids’ education doesn’t bear the brunt of these budget cutbacks.”

The group is holding an informational meeting on Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. at Town Hall, which is also known as the Scarborough Municipal Building. “These are tough times,” Kukka said. “The more community dialogue about this…the better.”

Brian Dell’Olio, chairman of the Scarborough Board of Education, said he welcomes community involvement.

“I have heard that there is a group of community members who are concerned about education in Scarborough, and as a school board member I am always glad when citizens want to support education and be involved,” Dell’Olio said in an e-mail. “No doubt, we have some serious work to do in the next few months, and all input will be key to the process.”

The Save Excellence in Scarborough Schools group is concerned about such issues as the fact that Scarborough teachers have been working without a contract since Aug. 31. The group also says that the schools are underfunded, resulting in larger class sizes and limited choices in the curriculum.

Kukka, who has two children in town schools, called the contract issue, “a symptom of what a lowly position education has been given in this community.”

/The district’s three-year contract with the Scarborough Education Association expired at the end of August. Following a Board of Education meeting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 3, at Town Hall,

the board and the teachers’ union are scheduled to meet behind closed doors to discuss labor negotiations.

Dell’Olio previously has said there are a wide variety of reasons that the board and the teachers’ union have not yet forged an agreement. Budget pressures are a factor, he has said.

Amy Glidden, a parent with two children in the public schools and a member of the new group, said in an e-mail that the teacher contract issue is “the one parents should be focused on.”

The new group aims to help the community articulate its educational goals for the Scarborough schools.

Those goals, Kukka said, “should not weaken or lessen as we face this budget process.”

She said the entire community, not just parents, has a stake in ensuring that Scarborough continue to have the excellent schools for which the community is known. Good schools draw people and businesses to a community and sustain property values, she said.

The group’s meeting is coming on the heels of a $38 million cut in state aid to education to school districts all over Maine. For Scarborough, that means $1.1 million less in state subsidy – a gap the district will have to make up in its $35 million school budget for the 2009-2010 school year.

The Board of Education will hold a workshop on the curtailment at its meeting Thursday.

But the new group – which Kukka said has about 20 members, mostly parents and a few teachers – formed because of broader concerns about the way Scarborough funds its schools, Kukka said.

The group contends that the education budget has not kept pace with educational needs in the past couple years.

The group provided state statistics showing that Scarborough spends not only less per pupil than the state average but less than surrounding communities.

The state average for spending per student is $10,657.59. Scarborough spends $9,724.03. Cape Elizabeth spends $10,512.24; Gorham spends $10,571.93; Westbrook spends $11,002.17; Portland spends $11,354.66; and South Portland spends $12,218.50.

Glidden, who is a teacher in Saco, wrote: “It is problematic that Scarborough spends less per pupil than many schools.”

She said her own two children, aged 9 and 11, have gotten a good education in Scarborough schools, but said that “teacher compensation has been the real victim in terms of low funding per pupil.”

The starting salary for Scarborough teachers in the 2008-2009 school year was $31,205. That was lower than starting salaries in South Portland and Portland, but higher than starting salaries in Westbrook and Gorham. Benefit packages for all those districts varied, affecting the bottom line for teacher compensation.

Kukka said that, “over time, we’ve lost good teachers.”

She said the issue is not just pay, but poor teacher morale as cutbacks affect education.

While the changes have not been dramatic, they are a “slow encroaching” on good education, Kukka said.

For example, she said, creeping increases in class sizes mean that teachers can’t give all the writing assignments that they would like to because they have too many papers to correct.

Teachers spend their own money on field trips and classroom supplies, Kukka said. And, she said, underfunding leads to limited curriculum offerings.

“Other systems have more robust course offerings than what they have in Scarborough,” she said.

The group provides a long list of courses that students in other communities can take but which aren’t offered in Scarborough. The courses on the list range from creative writing to earth and space science to languages such as Chinese.

The group said Scarborough’s tax rate of $12.15 per $1,000 of valuation is lower than the tax rates of surrounding communities. Scarborough spends 63 percent of its property tax revenues on its schools, while South Portland spends 65 percent, Cape Elizabeth spends 72 percent and Gorham spends 82 percent, according to figures the group provided and says it confirmed with each town. South Portland’s tax rate is $14.70 per $1,000 of valuation; Gorham’s tax rate is $15.90 and Cape Elizabeth’s tax rate is $17.54, according to the group.

When asked if the group advocates raising property taxes in Scarborough to better fund the schools, Kukka said, “I think it’s premature to talk about raising taxes.”

She said that the community first needs “that big picture discussion” about “prioritizing and redistributing the budget.”

She said Scarborough has to make a clear commitment to education. “A strong community equally values its schools as well as its fire department and police department,” Kukka said.