By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES— As children in elementary school, everybody learns that it is nice to share. 

At a young age, children are told that everyone should have an equal amount. Students are taught to share sweet snacks by dividing them into the same sizes. Teachers tell students to share an equal workload — whether it’s cleaning up the classroom or participating in a school project.

Therefore, it seems unfair that when it comes to a school district, the cost of the budget is not shared equally between all towns in the district. 

That’s because of the State of Maine’s formula for how towns split up the expenses associated with the school budget. 

Naples will pay the biggest portion, according to School Administrative District (SAD) 61 Superintendent Al Smith, who presented the school budget to the Naples Board of Selectmen on March 15. 

“I’ll be the first to apologize to Naples,” Smith said. “We are at the mercy of the state formula that we are given, and the state formula is based off real estate sales and student population, and it’s based on the past three years.”

The year 2020— along with the frenzy of buying homes in Maine because the state had low COVID count — factored into the formula. 

“Every community has done well with [real estate] sales. That’s obvious— you cannot find a house anywhere. I don’t know what has sold in Naples. But, obviously some things have sold at very good price. So, your tax base is based on that,” he said. 

“Your share is higher than the other two communities. You are the lucky ones that ended up lion’s share of the budgetcost this year,” he said.

Chairman Jim Grattelo interjected: “Lucky ones? Lucky ones?”

Smith responded, saying, “Unlucky. Sorry.” 

A few seconds later, someone is the room said, “Unfortunate.”

Later, during the presentation, Smith said that if he had the authority to set the cost for each town, it would be doled out evenly.    

“I’ll be honest: I wish this was split up nice and even, but the formula doesn’t allow us to do that,” he said. “Three years ago or four, Bridgton was in a similarsituation paying more than Naples and Casco.”

WAYS SCHOOL BUDGET KEPT LOWER

Smith said in order to reduce the amount each town is taxed, the fund balance can be returned to the budget as a plus. The money that was saved or unspent from the previous year is used to help offset taxes. 

“This year, we looked at we had available because usually we use $100,000 to $200,000 to help towns with the costs associated with the budget,” Smith explained.

For the upcoming school budget, $1 million of the school’s general fund was added to bring down the amount of taxes that needed to be raised, he said.

There were other things that took the pressure off taxpayers: Grants and reserve funds. 

Smith started off his presentation by talking about the grants the school district has received. 

“I do want to talk a little bit before the budget about monies we have received from the government; and it sounds like we are receiving some more. It lends itself to helping people understand that we have received a couple million dollars and what we’ve done with it,” the superintendent said. 

“We’ve tried to be fiscally conservative such that we can use those [grants] appropriately,” he said.

The grants were restrictive he said, adding the money couldn’t be infused into anyplace in the budget and it couldn’t cover a regular expense, and it had to be used for specific things during a specific time period. 

First off, because of the pandemic, the schools had to improve air quality. There were government grants specifically for these public-safety upgrades. 

“We put a lot of money into technology for our kids, and adults for that matter, as well as into transportation,” he said. 

A grant was used to purchase five new buses, and two new vans “that will help us down the road,”  

Also, there is another $1.8 million grant — a grant that has yet to be used — to hire support for staff and students. Those positions will only be available for two years. He hoped to hire “math teachers and educational-academic leaders.” 

Although there is money for these jobs in education, it doesn’t mean the positions will be filled. 

“That is provided we can find the staffing. There are needs across the state so people are going to be a high commodity,” he said.  

These grant-funded positions are designed to help with the void caused by COVID.  For example, many kindergarten-aged students have not yet been to the school because parents preferred to keep them home during the pandemic.

Chairman Grattelo asked a few questions about the jobs supported by the grant. 

“Those positions that you are adding — they are only funded for 2 years,” Grattelo said.

Smith spoke.

“The positions are earmarked to support the kids’ growth. I’m not saying all of them will go away. Most of those positions are very targeted: math coaches, literacy coaches,” he said.

Grattelo asked, “So, those people hiring on those jobs know that.”

Smith answered, and went on to explain who these short-term jobs might appeal to. “Typically, when being hired people enter into a one-year contact. Everyone will be notified what the position is and what the expectation is,” he said.  

“A lot of times, there are people who retired [and decide that] retirement isn’t all its made out to be. They come back for a couple years. The market is going to be extremely competitive,” Smith said. 

MORE BUDGET COMMENTS

Smith returned to talking about the budget. Many areas were impacted by the pandemic. 

“We’ve had some savings. We are not hiring as many substitutes. Some of our fuels costs [went down] because we don’t transport on Friday,” he said. 

However, even when school is not in session, the school has been offering free and reduced-cost meals.

“Our food costs are through the roof,” Smith said. “The way we have to package everything up and serve the food. The labor costs and the packaging costs — I’ve never seen anything like it.” 

Selectman Bob Caron II said he has gone to the schools during lunch hour, and it is impressive.

“What you guys are doing feeding the kids and keeping them separated. I’ve seen it. You are doing a real good job,” he said. 

Later, Caron asked at this point in time, what has SAD 61 got from the state because of COVID?

“Roughly $3.8 million,” Smith answered. “We spent it primarily on hardware. We bought new computers. We had to use the money to pay for all laptops upfront. We are looking on how to spend the money wisely . . . ”

The following day, on March 16, Smith spoke before the Casco Board of Selectmen. 

“You try to do everything when building the budget. I thought that we would be more well off with state funds than we were,” Smith said.

“Casco is in good favorable financial position. Your expenditures are down from this part year. You will see a reduction,” he said.  

“Unfortunately, Naples is in a position where they will not see a reduction. Unfortunately, Naples had a better year of property sales and so [in the three-year formula] when you drop off 2017 and bring in 2020, Naples ended up where their school contribution was the lion’s share,” Smith said.