Schools tackling tough budget decisions

About 200 people crowded the Lubec Consolidated School cafeteria on March 30 for a community discussion and controversy they have heard before: Close the high school, or keep it open.

Feelings were fervent on both sides, and both sides are well aware that the eventual decision will come down to money and taxes. The option to close the high school portion of the town's single school building looms, after the town was hit earlier this spring with the news of the pending 91% reduction in state subsidies.

The meeting was a public hearing, an extension of the school board's special meeting that evening. A second topic was also considered, whether to join forces with Eastport as an alternative organizational structure (AOS) or risk paying penalties for non-compliance with the state-mandated consolidation legislation.

School board members told the crowd they were traveling to Augusta the next day to visit with Governor John Baldacci and other state leaders in a last-minute bid to shape some options.

The high school is projected to have just 38 students enrolled in September. Already this year, 12 Lubec students have chosen to attend Washington Academy in East Machias, and another two attend Machias Memorial High School.

Paying tuition for Lubec high school students to attend Washington Academy, Machias Memorial or Shead in Eastport -- or continuing to run its own low-enrollment high school -- were the options put before the public in the hearing. But many in the audience felt that the numbers they were asked to mull over weren't the best set of figures.

"What does it cost to educate a high school student here, as opposed to paying tuition to another town?" resident Dick Hoyt stood up and asked. "Those numbers have not been represented here."

Superintendent Brian Carpenter showed that the cost of operating the high school next year would be $453,394. It would cost the town $415,056 to send the high school students to Washington Academy; or $406,758 to send them to Machias; or $311,625 to send them to Eastport.

But still, the listeners didn't have a sense of the true cost of keeping Lubec Consolidated School in one piece, because closing the high school would impact the grade school and the overall budget as well. If the high school is closed, the total budget reduction would be $256,025, Carpenter said.

"If you think you are confused," one board member finally said, "[Carpenter] really tried to make me understand it, and I still can't."

Three students spoke about how they wished to see their school remain open, small or not.

"Students from Lubec have gone to places like MMA [Maine Maritime Academy] and Boston College," said Meaghan Knox, a sophomore. "Lubec offers as much education as any other school."

Residents' comments ranged from the practical to the passionate.

"This is not just a question about our taxes," one said. "This is about educating our students. We are trying to give them opportunities."

Chris Crittenden, in favor of keeping the high school, spoke about "tradition, honor, loyalty and pride." He noted that the sign in town proclaims "Home of the Hornets, since 1896."

"This school is the last big enterprise in our town," he said. "Enough bad things have happened here ... We need to think about these values, because these vague numbers create a fog of despair."

Lubec will lose more than $510,000 from its 2010-11 funding from state education subsidy cuts. The figures are based on increasing property values and declining enrollment, and Lubec's many highly valued coastal properties have triggered the dramatic drop in funding.

On the matter of conforming with state law to join with Eastport as an AOS, Superintendent Carpenter detailed how the formation of a single central office would work. He estimated that cost savings could range from $17,576 to $41,636, depending on the payment, or not, of unemployment for laid-off workers.

Lubec had hoped to join in the 11-town AOS that Machias and other area towns are considering, but Scott Porter, the Union 102 superintendent, made it clear that adding in Lubec was not an option at this point. Porter was in the room and was asked to speak to why Lubec had not been invited to join with the others. He said that both he and his special education director were already overburdened serving the 11 towns.

Lubec now faces a $40,000 penalty if it fails to consolidate by July 1.