BRUNSWICK

The Brunswick School board will present a budget to the town council that is $849,000 leaner than the original $38 million proposal.

With the district facing potential cuts in state subsidy totaling $1 million, the school board has been focused on trimming the budget to lessen the impact on taxpayers.

The budget will be presented to the town council on April 24 for their review and input. If the council suggests additional cuts, the board will have until May to finalize a proposal. Superintendent Paul Perzanoski said on Wednesday there will likely be more changes, describing the budget as a living document.

Perzanoski presented a draft budget proposal last week that was a 3 percent, or $1.1 million increase from last year. The impact to Brunswick taxpayers would be about $2 million. With proposed reductions, broken down into tiers, the budget could be cut by about $1 million if all cuts in both tiers are agreed upon. Included in those proposed cuts are several teacher positions, maintenance projects and a new bus, among other expenses slated for elimination.

The budget increase is largely driven by reductions in revenue provided by the state, said School Board Chairman Joy Prescott. Money may filter back to the district following the legislative session, depending on what proposals are adopted, but that is only speculation. It is possible the outcome of how much money, if any, will be restored to the district will be an unknown even after the budget goes to a public vote in June, Perzanoski said at last week’s meeting.

The board voted to add some positions back to the budget Wednesday night that were potentially earmarked for removal, such as the curriculum coordinator, and a response to intervention, or RTI, educational technician at Coffin Elementary School and an RTI teacher at Brunswick Junior High School. Discussion surrounding the RTI positions included the fact students who need additional help in math or not getting the services they need which causes the need for remedial help in later years.

The board also voted to allocate $10,000 to help support Cub Camp, a pre-kindergarten program for children who do not score well on assessment tests and need additional help before entering their first year of school. The town does not have a public, school-run pre-K program, but proponents of Cub Camp are hoping it becomes an institution until a school-sponsored program is developed.

The program served 40 children in its inaugural year, and is a five week program that cost about $21,000 to operate last summer. A fundraising effort to support the program is ongoing and headed by school volunteer Willo Wright, who spoke at the meeting.

The additions totaled about $350,000 and bring the tax impact to the town to about 3.3 percent.

Board member William Thompson was the sole board member to vote against presenting the draft budget to the town council with the additions. He said the tax burden was too high a risk if there is no additional money coming from the state.

“Taxes have gone up 15 percent in five years — that’s a lot. It’s too much to gamble in the hopes money is restored from Augusta,” he said. Earlier in the meeting, Thompson suggested cuts had to be made in other areas if the positions and funding for the Cub Camp were considered.

Board member Sarah Singer said she hopes the public will look at the big picture in terms of the tax impact and the school budget. She said although she is sensitive to the argument higher taxes are a heavy burden on residents, she stressed the impact is not caused by out of control spending at the district level, but rather, tax policy in Augusta that shifts the burden to the local towns with cuts in revenue sharing and education subsidies.

“Ten years ago, the state funded education at 50 percent, now it’s 37 percent,” she said, adding the situation creates a lot of inequity in districts, with more affluent communities able to weather the cuts, and other less fortunate districts in the state getting crushed by it.

The budget will be presented to the town council on Monday, April 24.

jlaaka@timesrecord.com