HOULTON, Maine — Community members in Houlton voted Tuesday at a school board meeting to increase the town's local contribution to the RSU 29 budget in an effort to save nine teacher positions and academic programs like music and French.
Voters agreed to increase their local tax contribution by an additional $472,782.58.
Superintendent Joe Fagnant said the district is drowning and does not have the funding it needs to cover recurring expenses. He explained that it's the result of multiple contributing factors, such as property values that continue to rise, hikes in the cost of fuel, salary increases and declines in student enrollment as more parents are electing to enroll their children in homeschool programs.
Fagnant said he had no choice but to ask the school board to approve a $750,000 budget increase.
The board approved the increase on May 6, but Fagnant said the district was more than $1 million over budget even with that budget increase.
With no other way to lower its expenses, Fagnant said plans were set into motion to cut nine educator positions and to cut more than $1 million from the budget by removing French, music sports and other programs.
Fagnant said four educators were either retiring or would be reassigned to fill other gaps, and five teachers would simply be laid off.
"I think the hardest thing I had to do is sit down with that administrator and that teacher and have that discussion ahead of time and say, 'Depending on the budget, your position is no longer part of RSU 29,'" he said.
Although the voters' willingness to increase the town's local contribution may help save those nine positions and some programs, Fagnant said the school board has the final say whether those positions and programs are restored.
With the additional local tax contribution from the town and the additional $750,000 that was approved but the school board, the district received a total budget increase of $1,222,782.58.
Fagnant said $331,782.58 in Article 1 of the budget will be used to bring back teaching positions that were recommended to be reduced or completely eliminated for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. Article 4, which is funding allocated for athletics and extra-curricular activities, was increased by $141,000, recontributing money into student programs.
The total school budget lands at $16,896,576.41.
Fagnant said the district has to make more drastic cuts last year, getting rid of 17 positions and cutting $1.2 million from the school budget.
The superintendent it has been years since the district has asked for an increase, and schools have been making the absolute bare minimum work the best way they could for years.
Fred Grant was just one of the nearly 300 community members who showed up to Houlton's school board meeting this week.
"I had three kids that went through the Houlton school district," Grant said.
Grant said one of his daughters is now studying music at the University of Maine. Grant owns WHOU radio station in Houlton, and he also majored in music in college. When he found out the district would be forced to cut programs like music, he was stunned.
"Cut French, cut music, cut sports so we don't have to pay as much. But we don't usually ask that of anybody else in business," Grant said.
Grant is also a former school board member, serving for 13 years. He said school board members are tasked with making the money work and making sure budgets pass for ahead of each fiscal year. He added that a lot of the decisions boards are forced to make are not in the best interest of students.
"Unfortunately, their cost that they can't control have increased, and so as a community to have students that are trained and able to function and be successful, we've got to have those things in the budget," Grant said.
He went on to explain that removing programs from schools not only limits academic programs but also eats away at student's developmental growth, preventing them from having access to skills needed to help them become functioning adults in society.
Town Manager Jeremy Smith said town leaders now need to find out how to compensate for the $1.2 million dollar budget increase, because they were not prepared for the immediate need for additional funding.
"The town looks at our budget really close — what are we spending on, how can we cut cost, how can we make all of the dollars that we get from the taxpayers go as far as they can," Smith said.
Smith stressed the increase is necessary and said he believes the district does a great job making sure students have what they need with the little that they have to work with.
While recognizing the need, Smith acknowledged the change to the contribution could create additional cost for taxpayers and forces town leaders to reassess its plans to complete infrastructure improvement projects.
"For a home valued at $100,000, a taxpayer would see nearly a $200 yearly increase," Smith said.
He explained community members who are already counting their pennies on tight budgets will feel the hike the most.
Teacher salaries are set to increase next year after Maine lawmakers approved a recent bill to set the minimum teacher salary at $50,000 per year, Fagnant said. However, he pointed out that the state has only committed to help offset the increase of teacher salaries for one year.
With the increase to teacher salaries across the board, rising property values, and overhead cost that keep going up, Fagnant said budget challenges are on the horizon.
"How is RSU 29 going to survive over the next three or four years?"