A plan to hire a full-time math strategist for Regional School Unit 5 has been shelved due to the school district’s state teacher retirement funding obligation, said Shannon Welsh, superintendent for the district which includes Freeport, Durham and Pownal.

During the school budget process in the spring, the 11-member RSU 5 Board of Directors allocated $198,000 for what was called a retirement contingency account in order to pay 50 percent of the district’s share of the retirement costs, an obligation historically shouldered by the state. The issue of whether or not the state would continue to fund the full cost of teacher retirement remained in Legislative limbo until late June when the state budget was formally passed and required local school districts to cover teacher retirement.

“We put it in our budget and raised local dollars to pay that,” said Welsh. “The board also put $70,000 in a teacher salary line for a math strategist position and said if the state comes through with money, we would like to fill the math strategist position. After the citizens reviewed our budget and voted to approve it, the state said they would pay the other half. In order to pay the retirement costs, we needed to use the $198,000 in the retirement contingency account, plus the $70,000 that was going to go to a math strategist. The voters only authorized us to spend a certain amount of money; the money we owe is above and beyond that.”

In order to spend any additional money given by the state, the board would essentially have to send the issue back to the voters.

“We didn’t want to do that,” said Welsh. “It will go into an undesignated fund that is used to help offset taxes in future years.”

The exact cost and calculation of the retirement is yet to be determined and won’t be known until Sept. 1 when the payroll begins for the new school year.

Though the state will be reimbursing the district for the full amount, the initial cost will come from local taxpayers.

The district already has a half-time math strategist in Lisa Demick, principal of the Pownal Elementary School, who meets with teams of teachers concerning their math instruction.

“Even though it’s done in a half-time capacity, the lessons are very effective,” said Welsh. “People want more of her time and that was the impetus for the board to seek additional support. We have tremendous teachers who want to learn more.”