~ Kennebunk News ~ Kennebunk News

Somehow I don't think depriving our towns' kids of a year's education is a "solution" to overspending. There's no need for such drastic action. What's required is careful examination of every dollar spent, which thank goodness, is actually happening far more these days, at least on the school side of the local budgets.

Sorry Naran, thats crap and you know it..... What the schools want, the schools end up getting. I believe that trying to work inside a system that has broken the back of many communities here in Maine is futile. What I proposed is a solution, what you propose is also an option. The trouble is, what you propose to do has been being tried for the last 3 decades and hasn't worked. Students would not be deprived an education, they would merely be made to wait a year and then continue.

Perfect Fiscal Storm says to me that the town is on the edge of bankruptcy or at the very least a tax revolt. Without a radical turn I believe you are fighting with the wind. Saying that, I take my hat off to you and wish you the best.

Actually, if you knew more detail about what's been happening since we got the local school budget vote moved to referendum, you'd know my claims are not "crap." The present school administration is doing a far better job over the last two years, and they are NOT simply getting whatever they want anymore. Far from it.

There is no way closing our schools for a year is going to help anything. It's a ridiculous suggestion - the staff all have contracts, and we still have to operate and maintain the buildings. What - we should pay all the money anyway, and tell the kids to stay home? Be serious, please.

The loss for Kennebunk is $400K this year, but next year, it's in the millions figure. Add that to the regular old budget increases from cost of goods and services, utilities, and the new contracts.

I will pay the increased tax bills along with everyone else in town, but in the meantime, here's my one allowed miserable comment to all those at Kennebunk town hall who pushed those new spending initiatives, both surplus and other:

WE TOLD YOU SO!!!

I ment send everyone home for a year and mothball the school. Administrator, teachers, students. Realistic, no, would it work to put things right, absolutely if there are enough people in your town with smarts enough to do it. If there are more people like you then I am sure there are more then enough. If your school wastes as much as ours does I am sure you could run the school on half the money they are getting now.

Whether its the selectmen, school boards, or legislators in Augusta, they all use taxpayers dollars like they are garbage. Get rid of the progressive thinkers and a balanced program gets a lot easier.

Narans comments conserning the SAD budget events of the past and recent years are correct in substance and fact. I agree fully that since the employment of Dr. Farrell as superintendent things are improving budget wise. The final budget numbers have been less than what they would have or could have been.

My insistance is that they can be even lower with further control over the 'anything I want at your expense' of the majority of the faculty members, their union and their imediate leadership. Maintinence, Athletics and Groundskeeping are 3 areas I would like to see closer scrutiny of. Those responsible for the pressure aplied over the years deserve all the credit for the gains made, it is not just chest pounding or horn tooting.

The latest resistance to any type of user fee read to me like a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo. Correct me please if I am wrong, but I do not believe that any type of participant monetary contribution requierment towards athletics is prohibited by State law in Maine.

Leftout, thanks for the confirmation.

I agree there's always room for improvement, but it's a heck of a lot better than it was five years ago, when the annual increases were double-digit and no end in sight.

As I understand the legalities of activity fees, if the activity is associated with academic requirements needed to graduate, such as a class, no fees can be charged.

Sports is not required to graduate, barring the phys ed requirement. Neither are the 763 college applications the guidance department helped seniors complete this past year. For which I have suggested a minimum fee of $10 each. There is no fee for that service now, and there should be. As the parent of a senior, I would have gladly paid for the privilege of having all that work done for me!

Anything not academic in nature, and not required to graduate, it's legally okay to charge fees, from what I understand.

The town budget will be discussed again and finalized Thursday, 3/23, 6:30 pm, town hall. We expect to see everything above the cap (about $600K) on the table for cuts.

Kennebunk expecting to trim its budget

By JEN FISH, Portland Press Herald Writer

Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

KENNEBUNK — Officials are predicting a spare budget for next year as they try to deal with a more than $1 million increase in the town's share of the school district's costs. "Until the school funding shift is done, it's going to be very tight," said Town Manager Barry Tibbetts, referring to changes in the state funding formula that will be phased in over the next three years.

...snip

"Everything over the cap should be done away with," said Sue Walker, a member of the Kennebunk Taxpayers Association, a watchdog group in town.

Ed Geoghan, a member of the school budget board, said the school budget is very conservative and it will be up to the town to keep the municipal budget down.

"For (the town) to act irresponsibly would not be well-received," he said. "I think realistically, the town is the one that can make the reductions."

Story

I respectfully have to disagree with the comments contributed to Ed Geoghan. Ed is an excellent numbers cruncher as we all know and I wouldn't question his numbers. But I evidently look at this situation differently. The SAD budget is conservative compared to what has been the case, and they have shown savings in different areas, I won't argue that.

However the budget does increase around $800,000 in light of a roundabout figure of $1,000,000 in the state funding shortfall. Thats $1.8 million to the taxpayers no matter how you slice it. A prime example of trying to make a lesser increase sound like a savings or reduction.

As for the municipal budget my offer is on the table, and I might add the under the cap list should be shorter and mention will be made of that at the 3/23 meeting. Other than the $516,101 debt service and items that directly effect public saftey the rest of that list can go.

I look at over the cap items as a tool used to increase the 'base' budget figure for the following year, a way for town managment to increase its budget yearly and the majority doesn't understand or just can't see it. Items put over this (I really hate using this term) cap are actually not in the budget until passed at town meeting, so our town managers and others can actually offer up a budget that is under the cap but with a whole smorgishboard of candy for the voters to consider and cut their own throats with.

Following this train of thought, even if the over the cap list is bare naked as I proposed, it really is no savings. It is just a tax increase that didn't happen, not that thats a bad thing. In order to actually decrease the municipal buddget, cuts must come from the under the cap side of the equation. As a taxpayer and a Budget Board member I am not willing to strip this shortfall from the under the cap side of the municipal budget anymore than I am willing to just tack it on to the bill.

And on the other hand I am not willing to sit still on the budget board and let things continue on to the conclusion we were headed for. Because as anyone in Kennebunk that follows these things knows the municipal budget would have gone to town meeting as it was defined two weeks ago. And alot of that stuff would have passed, more than likely all of it.

I have said it before and I will say it again, any shortfall should come from the SAD budget. We can and should restrain the municipal budget. To listen to them say they can not is just the same old sob story. The SAD won't because they simpley don't want to.

I hope that didnt come off as being terse, it wasn't meant to.

No offense taken, leftout, and thanks for your thoughts.

Since Ed is on the school budget board, likely he has the opinion he does due to his familiarity with that budget - same as you do on the town side, since you have the greater familiarity there. At some point it would be productive if you two could meet up and discuss the various issues.

I think we can agree that costs must be restrained on both sides, and all new spending must be ruthlessly examined before approval.

I'd like to see flat-funded salaries for both town and school for the next three years, although I know it will never happen.

The subject of negotiating teacher salaries was a lively topic of discussion at our meeting last night. Not the actual amount of the pay, but how negotiations are done. We’re being told that for the school board to set numbers for the negotiating committee is “negotiating in bad faith”. Not being a lawyer it’s really hard to argue the details of labor law, but this defiantly doesn’t pass the smell test. However stupid it may sound, I have found other stupid laws on the books. For example, the law says if you have a school finance committee it can only be made up of three board members. You can’t have 5 if you so choose. I questioned that one until we got a ruling is from the district lawyers.

The state has done to the education system the same thing they’ve done to the health care system. In order to get school funding under control someone needs to take a serious look at what the state is doing. They need to review every mandate/policy/program/required report etc. and get out of the way. Have an annual standard test on the basics to ensure kids are getting taught those, then let the local school boards/ voters decide what they can afford from there.

By the way, stand by as the governors push to raise starting teacher salaries causes a huge salary battle. Every teacher is going to demand a raise the same percentage as the starting teachers get. Local schools will need help in fighting the MEA/ teachers union.

Angler, I too find the "negotiating in bad faith" item rather interesting. Perhaps Dan Billings can tell us if this is factual, or mere wishful thinking on their part.

Why shouldn't a board be able to set some kind of fiscal bar on percentages before entering negotiations? Everything else in the budget is currently governed by caps and those percentages. Why should salaries always be the sacred cow? They're the lion's share of the budgets in most cases, between 70-80%.

Our school board budget meeting last night resulted in discussion of 11 position cuts for the coming year. I think they're trying to match the town's efforts to minimize the LD1 budget impact to Kennebunk taxpayers.

HOWEVER - There were also comments from several board members that this is the "last year" they want to formulate a budget based on what the taxpayers will support at the polls! Excuse me? I have news for them - as long as enrollment numbers continue to decline, we will expect to see staff cuts to match those numbers.

Former boards and administration did nothing but raise the budget by double-digit increases for years, build new schools that are too large and expensive, and somebody besides the taxpayers has to pay the price for that. Besides, several of those same board members are still sitting in their places behind the name plaques every two weeks. They need to answer for the prolifigate spending that THEY voted for in the past.

If you have a 9 member board, 5 would be a majority, thus the subcommittee would be making the decisons the whole bord needs to be discussing in public.

Note I don't think the law allows none school committee members beyond the 3.

Steven Scharf
SCSMedia@aol.com

Note I don't think the law allows none school committee members beyond the 3.

Steven: Good point. That's the closest thing to a reason why this rule would apply that anyone has come up with. But, the committee only makes recommendations, they still have to bring the issue to the board for a vote. Also, the same could be said for any other committee, and as far as I know only negotiations and finance have the limits.

Updated List - Reasons Babbidge does not deserve re-election in 2006:

* Voted for, and has continually endorsed LD1. Which destroyed our traditional school funding formulas between Kennebunk and the Port. LD1 has also proven to be a specious piece of legislation, which has done nothing to create tax reform in Maine.

* Lobbied for, and obtained paid teaching leave worth approx. $35K in 2004/2005, in addition to his legislative salary and per diems, unlike every one of our former legislators, who paid their own way without complaining. This arrangement was later deemed illegal by the school board, and despite vigorous attempts to renew the agreement by Mr. Babbidge, was rightfully denied by the school board in 2006.

* Opposes TABOR.

* Never met a town or school spending initiative he didn't support.

* Created a further divide between the Port and Kennebunk by proposing a permanent 50/50% EPS funding split to the state, without obtaining the Port's endorsement first.

* Participated in a questionable secret meeting with other Kennebunk town officials, which resulted in a potentially improper secret offer of new school endorsements for the Port.

* Voted against consideration of Jessica's Law, and Amendment 1717.

For all the above reasons, I hope that the voters in House District 141 will send Mr. Babbidge back to the classroom fulltime in 2006, by voting for Kevin Rheaume.

An email I received this morning. A largely under-the-radar committee has been working for a year to raise funding on "renovating" the Kennebunk High School auditorium. We believe the real agenda isn't renovation, but a brand-new performing arts center, like the one York is proposing for $8M. Any time you hire an architect to do a feasibility study on an older building, you can take the money to the bank they won't come back recommending renovation.

In addition, the spearhead on this committee is a former school board member who led the campaign to build the two new, very expensive, and overly-large schools for Kennebunk. He's been campaigning for a new performing arts center in town for years.

Please note the underlined words in the announcement below (my underlining).

The Kennebunk High School Theater Renovation Committee has privately raised the necessary money to hire Drummey Rosane Anderson, Inc., (D.R.A.) to perform the Feasibility Study in order to arrive at a Concept Design to renovate or replace the existing theater. D.R.A. will facilitate this first of three Community Workshops which will be held during the coming months.

These Community Workshops are designed with two major goals in mind:

1. To provide all interested parties with an overview of this project from its inception to its current status; and,

2. To allow D.R.A. to solicit feedback and gather information from all interested parties and stakeholders, including students and youth performers, in order to design a theater that will only showcase our talented students, but also provide a venue for community groups.

Families are encouraged to attend as the workshop will include a breakout activity for students and young community members. We hope to see you at this important event!

For more information, please contact the KHS Theater Renovation Committee at: khs_theater@hotmail.com.

© 2005 Maine School Administrative District #71
Contact Us

Here's the site link for the Massachusetts architecture firm they hired.

After reviewing the various projects they've done, I can foresee the results of our own "feasibility study." Here's a likely photo of what they'll propose:

http://www.draarchitects.com/index.cfm?f=1

You ned to get a friend on this committee!

Steven Scharf
SCSMedia@aol.com

Wow, nice place.

Kennebunk to get more school aid

By JEN FISH, Portland Press Herald Writer

Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

An appropriation in next year's state budget will give the town of Kennebunk about $287,000 in additional funds to help offset the impact of changes in the state's school-funding formula.

Kennebunk faces a $1.2 million increase in its share of next year's school budget, thanks in part to a dramatic spike in the town's valuation, which determines how much money the town receives from the state.

...snip

Both town and school officials in Kennebunk said they were grateful for the additional funding, but warned that the debate over school funding between the two towns is not over.

"This is the best we could have hoped for," said Tom Wellman, chairman of the Kennebunk selectmen. But, he added, "I'd be lying if I said the whole thing is settled forever."

... snip

Kennebunkport officials have shown no interest in revisiting the plan, saying that their counterparts across the river should have anticipated the situation and not spent surplus funds last year.

Last November, Kennebunk voters approved spending more than $1 million on capital improvement projects and a new fire station in West Kennebunk.

"I suspect we're going to be right back in the same discussion next year," said Don Fiske, chairman of the Kennebunkport selectmen. "Hopefully, the town of Kennebunk will not spend their next windfall, but keep it in the bank for additional education costs."

...snip

Currently, SAD 71's budget plan for next year calls for an increase from $27.4 million to $28.2 million, or about 2.9 percent over this year's budget.

Maureen King, school board chairwoman, said the new funding will not change that proposal.

"I think we're going to have to go out and sell our budget no matter what happens," she said. "That's just good business."

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/york/060323sad71.shtml

Given that most of the costs of running a school is the salary and benefits of the employees, how do we cut? Instead of concentrating on raising the starting teachers’ salaries, we need to look at putting a clamp on the salaries of teachers. If you can’t control the amount that you pay, you have no choice but to cut the number. Again, how do we get this done? Any one school district trying to go it alone will get buried by the teachers union. Am I wong? Has any district made meaningful changes to the salary structure that actually resulted in savings?

please help, I can not stop my head from shaking in disgust, what timing

Not to worry, leftout, I don't believe the $287K from the state will affect anything in cutting the town or school budgets. Both discussions (I believe) will continue as planned. We'll find out tonight at the budget board/selectmen meeting (6:30 pm for anyone interested).

As for your question, Angler, the only way to get control is to defeat the entire budget at the ballot box, and then keep defeating it until you get new contract numbers implemented. In case you didn't know, Maine teachers cannot strike, and if the budget is voted down enough times, most contracts CAN be brought back to the table for negotiations. The districts generally don't like that knowledge to be out there, but it's generally possible to do.

If you don't have your school budget votes via referendum, however, this would be a lot harder to accomplish.

3/24/06

Kennebunk Post
By Molly Lovell
Staff Writer

The Kennebunk Board of Selectmen and Budget Board were slated to hold a joint meeting Thursday, March 23 at Town Hall to propose a final version of the town’s budget.

Because of the cost-sharing issue between Kennebunk and Kennebunkport’s schools, town officials discussed ways to cut the town budget any way they could.

Earlier in the week, Town Manager Barry Tibbetts said he and the town’s finance director Joel Downs looked at a number of items that were above the mandated spending cap in an effort to save money.

By putting off some of these items, or figuring out a way to refinance them, the town may be able to cut the budget by roughly $600,000, he said.

After looking at those items, Tibbetts said the town’s budget could be brought down to $9.4 million, or a 2.2 percent increase over this year’s budget.

Tibbetts said one suggestion to lowering the budget is to put off the purchase of a new fire truck for one year. Cost of a new truck would be $100,000. He said it wouldn’t make sense to purchase it now because the new West Kennebunk Fire Station is not expected to be completed until January.

“We’d have nowhere to put it,” said Tibbbetts.

More under "K'bunk Revamps Budget" headline

Really? Wow, great planning going on around here. :roll: What if the education funding had remained level, and they'd bought the truck as planned? Were they going to leave it out on the street? Amazing how the positioning of information changes at town hall when it's convenient.

At the meeting, the selectmen discussed cutting everything over the cap, and then just as quickly, it was "oh gee, let's move some of this back under the cap, and not cut it after all." Never fails.

On the other hand, I thought the Budget Board did a great job, saying "no thanks" to every motion to reinstate the questionable spending articles. Unfortunately they don't have a binding vote, but I appreciated the gesture.

3/24/06

Kennebunk Post
By Liz Gold
Editor

Two contested races for the June 13 primary election are heating up this area’s ballot as a handful of candidates from both parties have filed their nomination papers to seek decision-making seats in Augusta.

First time State Senator Nancy Sullivan [D-Kennebunk] will defend her District 4 seat against State Rep. Joanne Twomey [D-Biddeford] (Twomey voted against LD1- NRS).

...snip

State Rep. Robert Daigle [R-Arundel] won’t be returning to Augusta next year because he has served his maximum of eight years for District 140. Republican Sylvia Perreault of Arundel and Republican Mildred Tuttle of Dayton are looking to fill his position and will take on the Republican ticket in June.

... snip

State Rep. Christopher Babbidge’s [D-Kennebunk] will also face an opponent for District 141 in November’s election. Republican Kevin Rheaume, a Kennebunk resident filed his papers on March 10.

More here under headline

I'm truly torn over this match up. :roll:

I'll take Twomey if I have to. At least she voted against LD1, and at least she's not getting a full salary from the Saco school district while lobbying for the Education Empire in Augusta, like Sullivan.

A big blue tarp? As I understood it, the hope is to house the W.K. equipment in the State facility near the trunpike enterance while the firehouse is under construction - the information is the State has allowed this before, there is plenty of space. It would take 6 months to a year before the truck showed up here anyway. Strange reasoning prevails again.

But the work is not done by a long road. We did get the over the cap items eliminated, with but 1 item listed as eliminated, 1 reduced, 3 from the mystical surplus, 6 defered and more magic restructuring paving etc. At first glance this is $714,610 less than the number we had going into this meeting, but $605,095 of this figure was OVER the cap items. The actual reduction is $ 109,515. Funds to pay for over the cap items is NOT a reduction, it is a potential tax increase that was avoided. Not one penny of that money is a savings, it did not exist.

The most telling question I thought, W.Berry - after all this process why wasn't this proposed at the beginning?...answer...blah blah blah. I was appreciative that Bob lit into the SAD somewhat, I wanted something refering to them from that board.

True to form the selectmens Chair, toward the meetings end, attempted to reinstall some paving articles OVER the cap. There was no discernable answer to the question "why put anything over the cap when there is room under the cap?". The Selectmen approved the articles. To their credit the budget board did not. But to me the answer to that question is that over the cap passed funds increase the base figure used to calculate the allowed increase for the following budget cycle. Over the cap items to me are a hidden tax increase because most people can not comprehend the ramifications of them.

The Parks and Rec suggestion, and the Library one will be revisited. The PnR needs more numerical facts to prove it out, and by the way, in no way shape or form will an impact fee for PnR be supported if the term 'community center' is included. That is not the intention of it, the intention is to make the Rec department as self sufficient as possible. My opinon after glancing thru the numbers at the meetings start was not to risk loosing any of the gains that were made.

Go Kevin!

Agenda for the Kennebunk Selectmen's meeting tomorrow night, Tuesday March 28th, starting at 7:00. Televised on Adelphia Channel 5.

There are several public hearings on various issues first, then the following regular agenda. Please note the items in bold type - could be important discussions.

AGENDA

The Board of Selectmen of the Town of Kennebunk will hold its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. at the Town Hall in Room 301 to act on the following:

Article 1. To Accept, Amend or Reject the Minutes of the Meetings of March 13, 14, and 23, 2006.

Article 2. To Examine and Sign the Treasurer’s Warrants.

Article 3. To Discuss a Charter Amendment for Town Clerk Residency.

Article 4. To Discuss a Citizen Petition on Budget Voting.

Article 5. To Hear a Presentation from the Economic Development Committee.

Article 6. To Award the Seawall Repair Bids.

Article 7. To Discuss Park Street School.

Article 8. To Approve the Skateboard Park Location.

Article 9. To Discuss the One Alfred Road Agreement.

Article 10. To Discuss the Merrill Currier Property..

Article 11. To Approve the Dog Warrant

Article 12. To Discuss Union Contracts (executive session, Title 1, §405, 6.D.).

Article 13. To Discuss Non-Union Salaries (executive session, Title 1, §405, 6.A.).

Article 14. To Discuss any other business that may legally come before the Board of Selectmen.

Yesterday the Kennebunk town manager phoned the KTA steering committee, and offered a deal on our petition to move the town budget to a referendum vote. (He was probably trying to head off the confrontation coming at the meeting tonight).

He wanted to know if we would agree to wait for a charter commission to reconvene, and have the issue dealt with that way.

We said "no sale," for the following reasons -

1) A charter commission has to be formally convened, with members both appointed and elected. Last time, that part of the process took months. Once convened, it took the commission a full year to come back with a proposed charter. Which was subsequently voted down at town meeting, due to proposed changes that were too broad, and would have removed important checks and balances (such as moving the town clerk's position from elected to appointed. Again, no sale).

So, agreeing to the town manager's proposal could result in two years for a town budget referendum vote to be enacted, IF a new charter was voted in and approved. No thanks.

2) Over 800 people have signed the petition, and more are signing every day. We think this issue deserves to be dealt with by the selectmen now, and submitted for a vote at town meeting this coming June.

3) I'd like to see a vote on the issue tonight by the current board of selectmen, two of whom are up for re-election this year.

Which of our five board members supports giving every resident a vote on the town spending budget, and which do not? Which would prefer to let the voters decide on this very important issue of basic Democracy?

Stay tuned, and if you can attend this evening, and offer a word of support, we'd appreciate it.

Note #5 - To Hear a Presentation from the Economic Development Committee.

This committee is trying to gain control of a portion of or all of the TIF funds from the TIF districts. It was repeatedly told to the voters upon conception of these TIFs that NO funds would go for tax breaks or any other scheme to lure business to Kennebunk. Infrastructure we were told, every penny will go to infrastructure. The idea was floated by this comittee the last time it spoke to perhaps purchase some land to offer some business to build on to locate here.......