Portland school officials are considering a budget for the coming year that would eliminate 81 jobs to address a $4 million reduction in federal funding.

Faced with a $2.1 million revenue shortfall, Scarborough’s school budget proposal would eliminate 24 positions.

Falmouth’s budget proposal would eliminate or reduce as many as 20 positions in response to an $800,000 shortfall.

Staff reductions are possible in Biddeford and Westbrook, where revenue is expected to be down about $1.2 million and $3.5 million, respectively. But Westbrook Superintendent Reza Namin won’t discuss the potential for layoffs before school officials unveil a budget proposal Saturday.

“It may or may not include staffing reductions,” said Namin, who’s working with a $33 million budget this year. “Everything’s on the table because this is going to impact the entire community. This community has never faced a financial challenge this big, and we want to be very careful how we handle it.”

School districts across southern Maine are preparing 2011-12 budgets that call for significant staff and program reductions.

Many are reeling from the impact of an anticipated $60 million reduction in state education aid because federal economic recovery money, which saved hundreds of school jobs in the last three years, runs out in June.

Statewide, about 1,200 school jobs could be eliminated as districts consider cutting teachers and programs, increasing class sizes and consolidating school services. Maine districts received a total of $39 million last fall from a federal education jobs bill.

PORTLAND

Portland, the state’s largest school district, saved $1.9 million of its $2.6 million jobs bill allocation to spend in 2011-12. Still, Superintendent Jim Morse presented a $92.7 million budget last week that calls for eliminating six administrators, 25 teachers, 38 education technicians and five support staff members.

Forty-one employees have accepted a retirement incentive designed to save jobs and lower operating costs, but that impact won’t be known for a few weeks.

“It really depends on how much federal funding a district received and how much was used,” Morse said. “For Portland, it was a very big number.

“As the school board reviews the reductions I have proposed, in every case, the correct question will be, ‘What’s the impact on students?’ We have tried to limit that impact. This budget still moves the district forward, not backward.”

FALMOUTH

Falmouth school officials are considering staff reductions that would push elementary class sizes to the 24-student maximum allowed under district policy, said Superintendent Barbara Powers. The current $24.6 million budget eliminated or reduced 12 positions.

They’re also rethinking a plan to offer all-day kindergarten at a new elementary school this fall and wondering whether to further reduce the town’s elementary world language program.

The school board will hold a daylong workshop Saturday and present the budget for a public hearing and vote March 21.

“We’ve been absorbing and absorbing and absorbing revenue reductions for three years now,” Powers said. “If we go deeper, we begin to really affect the quality of education we provide.”

SCARBOROUGH

Superintendent Jo Anne Sizemore’s proposed $35.3 million budget is up 0.6 percent, $199,090, over the current budget. To avoid a greater increase, her budget would reduce operating costs by $1.3 million by eliminating more than 12 full-time teaching jobs, as well as counselor and education technician positions.

The budget also proposes increased activity fees for high school and middle school students and the introduction of fees for co-curricular activities at the intermediate level.

School Board Chairman Christopher Brownsey said Sizemore did a good job explaining the rationale for the cuts and the effort to minimize the impact on students.

“Basically, it’s all based on the funding from the state and what we think we can ask taxpayers for,” Brownsey said.

CAPE ELIZABETH

Interim Superintendent Ken Murphy has proposed a $21 million budget, up 2.2 percent, $447,719, over current spending. Murphy’s budget calls for eliminating 1½ teaching positions and assumes conservative salary increases in a pending agreement with the teachers’ union.

“It does look to me to be a reasonable proposal, given where we could be when you look at our surrounding schools. They’re facing much worse situations,” said Mary Townsend, school board chairwoman. She noted that Cape Elizabeth made cuts in previous years as other districts were maintaining.

SOUTH PORTLAND

Superintendent Suzanne Godin will present her budget proposal to the school board March 14. At least two versions are in the works. One would call for flat funding, reflecting direction given by the City Council. Another would call for a 2.5 percent increase. A third may be developed, to reflect a “needs-based” approach.

“It’s trying to give us a gauge of where the experts think we should be or could be and how we can get there,” said board Chairman Ralph Baxter Jr.

BIDDEFORD

In Biddeford, the School Committee will receive a budget proposal from its finance subcommittee Tuesday. Superintendent Sarah-Jane Poli said she anticipates budget cuts of as much as $1.2 million, or 4.1 percent, from current spending, which may call for eliminating staff positions. Biddeford’s current school budget is $29.1 million.

SOME DISTRICTS anticipate little financial trouble in the coming year, but future budgets appear murky:

YARMOUTH

Yarmouth school officials are working on a nearly $20 million budget that would increase spending by 1.75 percent and eliminate three positions through retirements or resignations, said School Committee Chairman David Ray.

“We feel pretty good about this budget,” Ray said. “But we’re at a point where we’re questioning whether we can maintain this relatively flat funding. The budget after this one, we’re anticipating a revenue shortfall of several hundred thousand dollars.”

RSU 23

Officials in Regional School Unit 23, which includes Saco, Old Orchard Beach and Dayton, are developing a budget for the coming year that follows the current $42.4 million budget.

Business Manager Sharon LaFlamme said they’re aiming for flat funding, but the district’s contract with Thornton Academy may increase. The school committee will hold a budget workshop March 15.

WINDHAM-RAYMOND

In the Windham-Raymond school district, Superintendent Sandy Prince will present his budget proposal to the RSU 14 school board March 16 at Windham Town Hall. A public forum on the budget will be held April 6 at Jordan-Small Middle School in Raymond.

The district anticipates a $187,934 revenue shortfall, despite a slight increase in state aid. This year’s budget is just under $37 million.

GORHAM

Superintendent Ted Sharp has proposed a $31.2 million budget, up $917,000, largely because of a school construction project, which also increased state aid by $1 million.

The School Committee was scheduled to start reviewing the budget Saturday.

— Staff Writers Emma Bouthillette, Ann Kim and Beth Quimby contributed to this report.

Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:

kbouchard@pressherald.com

 

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