SCARBOROUGH – The Scarborough Board of Education last week endorsed a 10.6 percent budget increase, targeting school spending for the coming school year at $41.38 million.

However, with state mandates up and dollars down, that $4 million budget boost translates to a $5.18 million, or 16.2 percent, spike in the need from local taxpayers.

According to preliminary numbers run by Town Manager Tom Hall, if the April 1 commitment date shows the expected $15 million increase in property valuation town-wide, to $3.65 billion, the proposed school budget has the potential to add $1.36 to the property tax rate of $13.80 per $1,000 of valuation.

In other words, the owner of the median single-family home in town, assessed at $300,000, pays a property tax bill of $4,140. Under the school budget proposed by Superintendent George Entwistle, that bill would grow $408, without considering any increase caused by municipal or county spending.

Scarborough’s share of the county budget is up 5.7 percent to $2.19 million. That potentially adds another 3 cents to the tax rate, bumping the median property tax bill an additional $9, to $4,557.

Hall was scheduled to present his municipal budget to the Town Council Wednesday evening, after this week’s deadline for The Current.

However Hall’s own budget rings in, Entwistle’s proposal alone is more than three times the cap set by the council. At a Jan. 30 workshop, its seven members agreed to limit the growth in all spending next year, including by the school department, to 3 percent.

“I think the proposed school budget as compared to the council goal is self-explanatory,” said Hall in a March 15 email, when asked to comment on Entwistle’s budget proposal.

In his presentation to the school board last Wednesday, Entwistle signaled an expectation that his budget will get at least a shave, and probably a haircut, too, before going to voters in May.

“The purpose of tonight is to put a first stake in the ground,” he said. “It’s one we know is going to move.”

This year’s proposed school spending hike is even larger than 2012 – Entwistle’s first budget cycle in Scarborough – which he pushed as “a correction year.” That plan called for a 12.9 percent increase in local spending, blamed largely on the expiration of federal stimulus bills. However, by the time the budget wound through the process and got to voters, the total 9.86 percent spending increase had been whittled in half, to 4.9 percent.

Much of the new spending comes from contracted increases in salaries and benefits. Also, there is a new state mandate for local school districts to pay half of teacher retirement costs, as well as a spike in costs related to insurance, supplies, electricity and fuel. Entwistle has also included funding for new buses that has been put off in prior budgets.

Entwistle defended his initial proposal, saying it “passes the straight-face test” because if Scarborough was spending on par with 12 surrounding school districts, it would have crossed the $41 million mark two years ago.

Using 2012 per-pupil costs, Scarborough ranked mid-pack in spending on special education and debt service. However, it trailed last, or next to last, in allocations for transportation and facilities, administration and instruction.

“That speaks volumes to me,” said school board member Donna Beeley. “I can’t image anyone looking at that and not getting it.”

“There’s a misconception around town that Scarborough has some of the highest property taxes in Maine and that we spend way too much on schools,” said school board member Kelly Murphy. “But you can’t debate this, that we are 13th out of 13.

“That’s the message that we need to get out there, that your property taxes aren’t as bad as you think and we are not spending enough on school,” said Murphy.

Other board members cited similar sentiments as they voted unanimously to pass the budget though its first reading.

“I have to compliment the staff on really giving a long, hard look at the tough situation that we’re in and still coming up with a reasonable request that will help us move our kids forward,” said Beeley, just prior to the vote.

Only one director, John Cole, appeared to balk at the increase.

“The number I’m having a hard time with is the 10.6 percent,” he said, comparing student achievement to the business world.

“We have to show data that with this money there is going to be a superior product,” he said.

“I would not get hung up on numbers tonight,” replied Entwistle.

More to Cole’s point, Entwistle said, “The fact of the matter is, we’re not a business. If revenues in a factory are low, you can shut some machines down and can sort of lay some people off, or mothball things for a while. But the nature of the work that we do is more analogous to a hospital trying to go without lights or without water.

“We can infuse some business models that work,” said Entistle, “but given the human nature of the work that we are doing, if we don’t continue to nourish, stimulate, invest – what we risk is not delivering those career-ready or college-ready kids.”

Helping to drive all of the $4 million budget increase, and then some, onto the backs of local taxpayers is a $1.22 million drop in Scarborough’s state subsidy for education, as well as the new mandate on teacher retirement pay, said Entwistle, noting that the latter adds $537,549 to his budget.

“That allows the state, basically, to be off the hook for its stated obligations for funding education,” said Entwistle. “We want our schools to be insulated as best we can from current state politics and cost-shifting tactics.”

While retirement costs are a new wrinkle added to Gov. Paul LePage’s biennial budget now before the state Legislature, the state’s “general purpose aid” for education is allocated based on local property values. The use property values to allocate the state subsidy means that poorer districts get a greater share of their EPS allocation than so-called “minimum receivers,” like Scarborough.

Scarborough’s share is down more than 47 percent in the past seven years, from a high of $7.06 million in the 2008-2009 school year to $3.47 million projected for the coming school year.

Worse, the 50 percent of teacher retirement costs slated to be divvied out to local school districts also is divided based on property values.

“So, basically, we’re getting whacked both ways,” said school board member Jacquelyn Perry.

“And yet, every time I testify on behalf of Scarborough, whether its before the [Legislature’s] education committee, or appropriations, or even the state school board, the first thing they do is laugh, because they think we’re a rich community,” said Perry. “I’m not joking about that.”

On Monday, Perry, who has served 25 years off and on the school board since 1977, was again before the Legislature, urging it to find a subsidy system that does not rely so heavily on property values.

“Scarborough pays its fair share,” she said, adding that because of the continued decline in state funding, the school district is working on a deal to save up to $350,000 by outsourcing custodial services.

Perry is chairwoman of the school board negotiations committee hammering through that deal with the school union. Still, she seemed to regret the need.

“The impact on our loyal employees who do an excellent job will be devastating,” she said. “Scarborough is already feeling the effect on overall employee morale.”