The Edgecomb School Committee is one of 168 departments receiving additional state educational subsidies for Fiscal Year 24. Last week, Maine Department of Education reported a “funding error” resulted in an additional $42 million in subsides. Edgecomb is receiving $77,722.67.

On April 3, the school committee proposed three plans for spending additional subsidy dollars. The committee, consisting of members George Chase, Nichole Price and Chair Heather Sinclair, proposed using $12,000 for school instruction supplies and $10,000 for maintenance projects. Both were cut from the committee’s draft budget submitted last month. The budget committee requested another $150,000 in cuts. This led to the school committee reluctantly reducing instruction supplies by $12,000 and maintenance reserve by $10,000. 

The school committee also wants a substantial amount of remaining subsidy to be returned back to taxpayers. Sinclair proposed using $35,000 to $40,000 for reducing the local assessment. Chase agreed this would bode well for the upcoming budget vote. “I think it’s better for us politically by returning as much as possible to the town,” he said. 

But Sinclair wanted more information from the Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS) 98 business office. She requested financial models on returning $12,000 to instructional supplies and $10,000 for maintenance along two other scenarios: One, on returning $55,000; the other, how $30,000 to $35,000 would impact local assessment percentages.  “I want to see how these numbers change the percentages before making any final decisions,” she said.

The committee scheduled an emergency Zoom meeting for Monday, April 10 to review these scenarios and vote on the updated budget proposal. 

The committee is still working on holding its  own budget hearing. School officials learned last month their budget cannot be included on the May 20 town meeting referendum. State law requires educational budgets be held in-person. Special pandemic-emergency legislation allowed the previous two school budget meetings be held by referendum. But the emergency legislation is no longer in effect. When school officials learned selectmen decided to continue with the municipal referendum vote, they began planning for an in-person public budget vote.

The committee is tentatively planning a budget vote for Saturday, May 20, the same day as the municipal referendum. The committee directed Superintendent of Schools Robert Kahler to seek a moderator and confer with Town Clerk Claudia Coffin about the proposed date. “I think this may work out. If not, we can schedule another meeting,” Sinclair said.

In other action, teacher Nancy Rose requested the committee reconsider its March 27 vote denying a union member’s grievance. A special school committee meeting was held to hear the grievance. Prior to the meeting,  Kahler was asked about the hearing. He told the Boothbay Register, privacy regulations prevented him from divulging who submitted the grievance or the nature of it.

“We respectfully ask the committee to reconsider denying the grievance,” Rose said. “Despite the unanimous vote, it didn’t appear the members were truly unanimous and felt pressured to vote as they did.”

Sinclair disagreed with the union’s position. “I think the vote was incredibly difficult for everyone, but it’s not accurate saying there was any coercion,” Sinclair said. 

The union also requested tabling a motion to eliminate the part-time library/world cultures teacher job at the end of the school year and create a full-time “specials” job for the next year. “We have asked to meet and consult on that. We also asked for information on how the decision was being made, and have not received it,” said teacher Rachael Kellogg. 

Kahler explained the job was established last spring with the expectation it would be for one year. The school committee voted unanimously to eliminate the job. But in her motion, Sinclair did not  include language for establishing a full-time “specials” job. 

The committee adopted policies on student code of conduct, weapons, violence and school safety, student discipline, use of physical restraint, suspension of students, expulsion of students, disciplinary removal of students with disabilities, administration of medication, and child abuse reporting, prevention, and education.

The committee’s next regularly scheduled meeting is at 5 p.m. May 8 in the school cafeteria.