The superintendent and the school committee are to be commended for presenting the council with a .25-percent budget increase. What makes this budget even more remarkable is how the financial ship has been kept righted in a perfect budget storm. At Tuesday’s school committee meeting the superintendent discussed the dire funding picture: first, state subsidy to Biddeford was slashed; second, the mil expectation was increased; third, federal funding of the Title I program has been cut again; and, fourth, the state legislature continues to summarily ignore the will of the voters who, by referendum, voted to require the state to pay 55 percent of education costs.

While there are some reasonable cuts to staff and programs that Superintendent Ray has proposed, I am concerned about the council’s desire for deeper and deeper cuts. What is left? In the budget documents made public by the school department, I see proposed reductions in teachers, librarians, support staff, administration ”“ even school security. Filling potholes and keeping cops on the street is important, to be sure, but what about our hundreds of elementary students? The superintendent said that as many as two-thirds of our youngest and most vulnerable students are eligible to receive free and reduced lunch (a widely-accepted index of poverty). For those students, schools offer so much more than the 3R’s, they offer frontline medical care, two meals a day, a warm place to spend a winter’s day, and in some cases, the only contact they have with a stable, caring adult. The council ought to consider these students when asking for more cuts.

In the past three years, the school side of my tax bill has been steadily dropping, as the percent of my total tax obligation. Under the current proposal, the school budget will be less than the municipal side for the first time in the decade I’ve lived in Biddeford.

The superintendent and school committee have made every cut possible ”¦ they’ve even partnered with Dayton and OOB to raise revenue to ease the burden on tax payers. The school committee and superintendent have done their job. It’s time for the council to do its job: Stop threatening to deconstruct our school programs and send the budget to a vote.

Heather Keep

Biddeford