The Community School District School Committee tabled a new draft budget of $11,057,515 April 13. Members asked Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS) 98 Superintendent Robert Kahler to have accounting assess how much additional unassigned funds it would take to bring Boothbay Harbor’s contributions to 0%.

The new draft budget, down 4.9% from the last draft, applies $1.9 million in subsidies and $925,000 in unassigned funds for an assessment of $8,237,147. The assessment, or cost to taxpayers, is down 6.2% from last year’s budget. Boothbay’s costs would be $5,163,448, a decrease of 9.2% from last year. Boothbay Harbor's would be $3,182,649, an increase of 1.1%.

Chair Stephanie Hawke said the CSD has every reason to apply more cuts and more undesignated funds to offset costs enough to keep Boothbay Harbor’s contributions flat.

“I think people need a break somewhere and instead of just sit on this, we're trying to dream up things to spend it on,” said Hawke. “I think we should flatten out so people don't get hammered with this because it's going to be a tough couple of years.”

Member Bruce MacDonald said school administrators should not have to go back to the budget for more cuts. Staff and administrators have presented a reasonable budget after assessing further cuts the board requested and, aside from salaries and benefits, costs are up just over $52,000 from last year, he said. “We've discussed this … I don't think you can say the needs of the taxpayers trump the needs of the kids. We're here to provide education for the kids. We've got a description in this budget of what that means.”

Adult ed program

CSD Adult Education Director Kayla Sikora presented three options March 17 for her program’s funding: continuing $31,750 for the program with a 40-day contract for the director, $72,950 for a 140-day contract and expanded programming, or $109,986 for a full 180-day contract and full programming. Committee members were split on the second option, but agreed the first option limited the program and the third option was too expensive.

Returning to the budget April 13, the committee rejected member John Bertolet’s amendment, 3-2, for $50,000. Vice Chair Peggy Splaine, Abby Jones and MacDonald dissented. Splaine followed up with an amendment for $62,000 which passed 3-2, MacDonald and Jones dissenting.

Discussing budget numbers without considering how it affects programming and the CSD’s mission for adult education is ill-advised, MacDonald said. Jones said Sikora’s presentation persuaded her more programming would be useful not just for adults, but for high school students searching for an alternative path to graduation and workforce training.

“We're kind of in a period coming out of COVID where people have fallen through the cracks,” said Jones. “Now is a good year, even though we're asking the community to pay a little more, to help each other.”

The three figures are based on programs Sikora has been involved with and how they operate; and changing them creates many unknowns for the program and for the director’s workload, Sikora said. While 140 days would give incentive for future applicants, anything less will not draw experienced adult education directors, she said.

“I set this up so you guys can get a more full-time director in here and your community can have the programming that it needs. Now I'm not sure you're going to be able to find a director. With the economy the way it is, who's going to work for an 80-day contract? Nobody's going to be able to sign up for that.”

The $62,000 is about $22,000 less than Sikora’s second option, a total cost of $84,801, which would have qualified the CSD for nearly $12,000 in state subsidies. MacDonald requested adult education be put on the next meeting’s agenda.

Tech team

The central office, technology team and Boothbay Region Education Association worked together recently to create new job descriptions for the tech team, said Kahler. The team consists of AOS 98 Technology Director Brynne Roseberry, BRES tech integrator Zachary Gray and outgoing BRHS tech integrator Abby Manahan.

BREA’s Mark Gorey praised efforts toward job description updates and how tech team feedback and central office response and action have been much better than in years past. The new job descriptions will help clarify responsibilities for each team member, he said. However, tech team feedback identified a need for extra help because the amount of work outweighs the team’s ability to fulfill its vast responsibilities and duties. BREA and the tech team suggested an educational technician would alleviate some of that burden.

“In order to get all the work done that needs to get done, we really need those four positions … It's the budget season first, so we just wanted to make a pitch for that position.”

The tech team has set up new network access points in Boothbay Region High School and very few of the old issues remain, Kahler said. Some hardware like laptops still get stuck on the old access points, but the issues are not network related and the tech team has been able to diagnose and fix them as they come up, he said.

MacDonald asked if the network was performing so poorly as to be considered “a joke” as, in an earlier issue of the Boothbay Register, Manahan said students think of the network. “With all this talk about the numbers, are things stable now, are we teaching using the network, is the word 'a joke' a joke in itself? That's what it said in the paper – making us look like we didn't know what we were doing.”

“Fake news, Bruce,” said Hawke.

One of the biggest concerns that came out of news about the network issues was teachers’ confidence, said Kahler. The constant battles trying to connect devices to the network and to other devices via the network peaked December into the new year, Roseberry said. However those issues seem to be gone except for occasional instabilities at one access point where multiple connections bog down access. “Basically, we're employing the hardware we already have in use. In terms of the way the network was about a month ago, we're not hearing the issues where three or four classrooms are dropping for five minutes at a time at the beginning of each period. That has significantly improved.”

The defective access points were acquired nearly four years ago and the CSD was the first district to employ them, said Roseberry. Since then, four other Maine schools with the same units reported similar issues: As laptops and other devices moved from one access point to another, often classroom to classroom, devices were not dropping the original access points for the closer ones. Roseberry said this resulted in original access points continuing to try and maintain connectivity to the out-of-range devices which, in turn, bogged down other devices trying to connect.

Kahler said he received one estimate for a network engineer to consult on the issues, but wants to wait until at least one more estimate comes in before hiring anyone.

Said MacDonald, “I think it was an unfair public hit on us to talk about how our networks – what the status was, what the problems were and how we were approaching fixing them. From what I hear from you, it's all part of 'situation normal' that we have issues and problems with technology but we're working on them, we know how to work on them and we're going forward and our school is a functioning school with access like we should be in the modern age.”

Boothbay Region Elementary School and BRHS buildings had new roof leaks during the last rainstorm, Kahler said. AOS 98 Facilities and Maintenance Director Dave Benner identified the leaks and will be speaking with past contractor Haskell and Hall about an estimate to fix the problems. Kahler said the cost could be as high as $200,000 with work including power-washing, sealing, window caulking and more. Costs would most likely be able to come from this year's budget, he said. “It's been done in dribs and drabs here and there … and that's gone on throughout, but clearly it's not getting better, so something needs to be done.”