Last month, Gov. Paul LePage clearly stated that his proposed budget would eliminate any state reimbursement for administration statewide as they earn too much. After that statement I started to do some research and — guess what — he is correct. Out of the 242 school districts in the state, Brunswick would take one of the largest hits in the amount of at least $1.1 million. I gather that this large cut would be a result of the Brunswick School System having some of the highest salaries and benefits in the state . That would mean that it would be borne by the Brunswick Taxpayers in the amount of a 2 percent to 4 percent property tax increase as stated by Julia Henze Finance Director and Kelly Wentworth School Business Manager at the budget workshop last week.

Everything I have noted is on the DOE website so it is public knowledge and anyone can look it up. Some residents and Town Council members in the past that have asked the Brunswick School Department for this information and never received it so I am willing to put it out there for the public to see.

Superintendent Paul Perzanoski is paid a salary of $139,922 this year, plus the taxpayers also pay $24,513 for his health insurance, and $867 dental insurance, bringing his total package in the year 2016-17 to a whopping $165,302. There are only four other Superintendents statewide that earn more than he does, and his pay is also almost $30,000 more than our Town Manager John Eldridge and that is not right.

There are 299 school employees and we as taxpayers pay $22,550 each for their health insurance and $443 each for their dental insurance for a whopping $6,874,907 this year. The report also shows our teachers are some of the highest paid in the state and it shows that Brunswick teachers this past year received an average salary increase of 9.88 percent. It also shows the highest salary in Brunswick for teacher is $76,129 plus benefits and this is more than many town wide residents earn as year.

Brunswick school employees only pay 15 percent of their insurances, the property taxpayers shoulder the remaining 85 percent, and this is one of the highest amounts for our residents to pay. The support staff are also some of the highest paid in the state and to top it off, the are allowed 130+ days a year off. I think the School Department needs to talk to their employees and request that they pay their fair share of health insurance and it can be done even though they are unionized. I would love to see these employees pay upwards of 35 percent as it is not fair for the taxpayers to pay as much as they do. I hope that town of Brunswick residents come out of the woodwork on this issue and say enough is enough to the School Department, and that is what this household is doing. Those on Social Security have had no raises four out of the last six years and the pay scale for School Employees keeps going up.

Every year the School Budget goes up folks while the Municipal side continues to go down because the School Board will not make cuts. This is one of the reasons our roads are crumbling here is town as we just don’t have the funds to get it done.

To top this off, they want a new track and sports field and have had it on their radar now for over 6 years. It went from $250k to almost $1M since 2012 and I am sure that when they are ready to build it, it will be almost $2M if not more. They want the town to pay half, and they plan to raise the other half. Guess what, they still have not raised a penny yet as of last month. The original track at BHS was built with 100 percent donations and that is how the new one should be paid for. This is a want request from the School Department, and not a need. There are more important issues in town that need to be funded

To be fair, the Municipal employees also pay only 15 percent of their health costs, so they are not off the hook and need to take a hard look at what is on the taxpayers shoulders as well. It is time that both the School and Municipal officials start working together and combine their separate health and dental policies into just one for all town employees. It seems that by doing so the cost would go down but that is just my opinion.

Below is the website for the State of Maine Department of Education where I got the information for salaries, health, dental insurance, etc. I found it quite an eye opener, and am sure anyone that looks at it will feel the same. http://www.msmaweb.com/msma-salary-data/